This was kind of inspiring it is about a photography student alum that shoots weddings for a living but has this side project going that she has to shoot in a totally different manner.
Photographer shows passion in student project
by Alex Mueske
Thursday, May 07, 2009
Amber Patrick doesn’t do the typical class picture. There is no lining up students in rows with the teacher in front. For the UW-Oshkosh student photographer, that would be too boring.
At a recent shoot, she had 14 journalism students walk around in the dark while their instructor stood like a statue.
The only light available was transmitted from the computer monitors. Students bumped into each other and into furniture. One whispered, “What is she doing?”
The “she” in this case is Amber Patrick, who has a unique view of the world through her camera’s eye.
The result of that unusual shoot: a photo that captured a clear image of the instructor with her students, appearing translucent, milling about her.
In other words, a typical Patrick work of art.
On May 15, that photo and other Patrick works will be on display at the Reeve Union’s Steinhilber Gallery. Patrick was the project photographer for student journalism project called “War: Through Their Eyes.” The multimedia project looks at 16 soldiers and Marines that are either current students or alums of Oshkosh and asked them to share their stories of serving in the military. Not limited to only war veterans, it also covers stories of students who are awaiting the order to serve abroad.
Patrick feels most comfortable telling stories through her photos.
“It’s a family thing,” said Patrick, a junior majoring in graphic communications and photography. “My mother was an artist, and I was a photographer for my high school yearbook. I’ve always liked it. Maybe I was born with it.”
For the past two years, Patrick owns and operates GNE Photography, focusing on kids, families and weddings. However, while wedding shoots are challenging enough, she said photographing war vets and other military men and women proved to be a different kind of challenge.
“Weddings are one-day projects,” she said. “With ‘War: Through Their Eyes,’ it’s a continuing and consuming project.”
Patrick shot photos and the soldiers and Marines in studio, at class and at home. Patrick even went as far as trekking through the woods in freezing conditions to shoot and document a ROTC field exercises.
“During the shoot, my hands were freezing, it made it really hard to press the trigger,” she said. “That led to a number of out-of-focus shots, but we still ended up getting some great pictures.”
Patrick first learned of the project two weeks before the start of the spring semester. “I was ecstatic to be a part of the project,” she said. “My mind was reeling with all of the possibilities of what we could do to add some artistic flavor to the project.”
Grace Lim, the journalism instructor who assigned the project to her 14 beginning journalism students, describes Patrick’s work as exceptional.
“I keep forgetting that she’s a student,” said Lim, a former reporter with the Miami Herald and People magazine. “She’s as good as some of professional photographers I’ve worked with before.”
Lim said she was taken by Patrick’s creative take on the class photo.
“All I was expecting was a simple photo of me and the students; instead I got this cool photo that looks like a painting.”
Patrick aims to accomplish much with the project.
“The project shows the variety of shots I can do,” she said. “I want people to know who each soldier is and experience their story.”
The project, which includes a book, a series of podcasts and a photo exhibit, gives the student soldiers and Marines a forum to share their stories with the rest of the world.
Patrick said the soldiers and Marines were not used to being the focus of attention, but once she got them into the studio, she got them to ignore the camera.
“I asked them about their interviews and tried to just ask normal questions,” she said. “I wanted to get to know who they were and to talk to me as if they were talking to anyone else.”
For Patrick, “War: Through Their Eyes,” has taught her to fit her photography to the style of the project.
“The whole process has been a blast, but I am predicting that the exhibition on May 15 will be the most memorable part for me.”
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