Gallery One

Through
March 25

Reception:

Wednesday, March 9

4-6 p.m.

By Diana St. Lifer

From Nova Scotia and Buenos Aires to Morocco and France, the winning photographs in this year's Global Images Competition will take you on a journey throughout the world through the eyes of Montclair State faculty and staff. The exhibit features 70 photographs taken in 19 countries.

The winning photograph, "Silken Sailboats," was taken at Clarks Harbour in Nova Scotia, Canada by Randall FitzGerald of Montclair State's New Jersey School of Conservation. Second place went to Judith Lin Hunt of Sprague Library for "Balcony in La Boca" taken in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Jane Peterson of Theatre and Dance captured third place with her portrait from Morocco titled "Blue Door of Chefchouen."

"My passion for photography started in my late teens when my older brother returned from Vietnam in 1969 with a 35-mm camera," said FitzGerald, who has been at Montclair State 17 years and entered the contest this year for the first time. "As the years passed, I became obsessed with the art of landscape photography, spending many hours capturing images and processing them in my homemade darkroom. By the mid-1970s I became keenly interested in the individual elements of the landscape--trees, flowers, animals, rocks--and how they all fit together."

FitzGerald, who has two other photographs in the exhibit, said his interest in photography influenced his studies, which culminated with a doctorate in biology. "Throughout my studies my camera was never far from my side.”

Second-place winner Judith Lin Hunt is not a newcomer to the competition. Her photo of the interior of a ceramics museum in Tonala, Mexico, outside Guadalajara took first place in the competition's inaugural year in 2002. Lin Hunt's winning photograph this year was taken in La Boca, an artist's district in Buenos Aires. "I had met an artist from Buenos Aires in Borneo the year before," she said. "She invited me to visit her studio on the main street in the La Boca district. All the houses are colorful--vibrant colors befitting a vibrant city."

Lin Hunt said she's enjoyed taking photographs since she was a young child, snapping away with her parents' Brownie Box camera. "I have infinite patience waiting for the right photo opportunity," she said. "My family and friends do manage to put up with me on our travels." Lin Hunt also has two other photographs in the exhibit, "Las Puertas--the Doors," also taken in Buenos Aires, and "Street Performers," taken in Colonia, Uruguay.

It was last summer on a trip to Morocco when Jane Peterson took her winning photograph "Blue Door of Chefchouen.""I had been in Spain for a conference, where I presented a paper on the depiction of Muslim characters in American drama, specifically the late 18th-/early 19th-century Barbary pirates who captured ships in the Mediterranean and enslaved numerous sailors and passengers," she explained. "I had been reading about Algiers and Morocco for months so I took the opportunity to extend my trip and see firsthand that part of the world that I had been researching."

Two other photographs Peterson took in Morocco and one from Alhambra are also in the exhibit. "While I enjoy taking photos I am a true amateur; it's only for fun," she said. "However I really appreciate the Global Images competition. It offers unique and beautiful views of the world as seen through the eyes of our friends and colleagues. And who wouldn’t want to take a trip (even vicariously) to global destinations in the middle of winter?"

The exhibition is in Gallery One through March 25. A reception will be held Wednesday, March 9, 4-6 p.m. "We continue to be impressed by the quality of the photography and by the extent of the international travel undertaken by our campus community," said Marina Cunningham, director of the Global Education Center.

Lin Hunt agrees. "Each year I enjoy seeing the photos. Not just the places and faces around the world, but also the artistry. Sometimes it's a beautiful scene, a fleeting moment, a somber mood, and sometimes whimsical and humorous."