recent highlights:
- senior kennedy fry opens projects gallery show
- bear lake assessment project opens
- senior lele bonizzi wins cpoy award
- usuphoto at spe w/sw
- alumna olivia ethington on midwest nice
bfa senior kennedy fry opens ‘with love, mother,’ at usu projects gallery
November 18, 2024
Kennedy Fry, from the series, “With Love, Mother”
“With Love, Mother,” a solo exhibition by USU senior BFA photography major Kennedy Fry is on view November 18-22, 2024 at USU’s Projects Gallery.
“With Love, Mother,” features a selection of silver gelatin prints from Fry’s 2024 CCA Summer Arts Research Grant project, in which Kennedy traveled between Utah and Arizona to photograph with her adoptive and birth families and document the landscapes of where she was born versus where she grew up.
“The hands that held me after birth are not the same hands that raised me. While I inherited my olive skin and dark hair from my birth mother, my resilience and sincerity I got from my adoptive mother. From both, I learned how to love,” Kennedy writes. “The photographs in ‘With Love, Mother’ serve as a love letter to my moms, yet they also grapple with the many complexities of familial relationships, motherhood, and the nuanced debate between nature vs nurture.”
Alongside portraits of her biological and adoptive families, Fry photographed along the route her adoptive parents took after picking her up from the Mesa, Arizona hospital where she was born. The physical and photographic journey became a kind of meditation, allowing Fry to find a sense of belonging in previously unfamiliar terrain.
“The resulting images are now archival pieces of my adoption story, standing alongside the few letters and pictures that previously formed my only connection to my birth family,” Fry says. “‘With Love, Mother’ has forged connections that once seemed unattainable, each photograph a beacon in navigating a complex emotional landscape.”
The USU Projects Gallery is located on the ground floor of the USU FAV building and is open Mon-Fri, 9-5.
bear lake needs assessment project opens at usu
November 4, 2024
Utah State University photography students, under the guidance of Assistant Professor of Photography Jared Ragland, are playing a key role to document challenges facing Bear Lake.
The Bear Lake Needs Assessment Documentation and Visualization Project blends scientific research with visual storytelling to raise awareness of critical issues surrounding Bear Lake’s natural resources, land use and human impact. Photographs from the project will be exhibited from Nov. 4-Dec. 13 in the Tippetts and Eccles Galleries at USU’s Chase Fine Arts Center.
The project is one of 10 Bear Lake Needs Assessment research projects funded by grants from the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands and administered by USU’s Institute for Land, Water and Air (ILWA) to study critical issues within Bear Lake and the lands around it.
Bear Lake is unique in the region as one of just three large natural lakes in Utah. Over the past decade, visitation to Bear Lake, located on the Idaho-Utah border, has surged by 300%, amplifying concerns over development, water management and environmental sustainability. This has created additional challenges for the lake and those who maintain the land.
Through more than 20 field visits in 2024, Ragland and his students in the ART 3830 Documentary and Visual Storytelling class have worked with local stakeholders and Bear Lake Needs Assessment Project research teams. Ragland and his students have created a visual record that reflects the lake’s unique agriculture, infrastructure, recreation and ecological features while highlighting the efforts of USU researchers and community partners to safeguard the lake’s future.
The student photographers are: Lele Bonizzi, Eli Clare, Anastasia Coleman, Kennedy Fry, Annora Madden, and Kennedy McLeod. Additional contributions were made by recent USU BFA alumni Olivia Ethington (’24) and Kenzli Pendleton (’24).
Following the exhibition, select images from the documentary project will be featured in ILWA’s annual Report to the Governor and Legislature on Utah’s Land, Water and Air, and included in a comprehensive report to address the lake’s long-term management and support informed decision-making for future policies. An archive containing several hundred digital images will be archived by ILWA and provide a lasting resource for research and advocacy.
“At USU Photo, we are guided in our belief in photography’s critical role in contemporary culture,” Ragland said. “Through the making, learning and sharing of images, we encourage students to utilize photography as a tool for compassionate citizenship, meaningful storytelling, and impactful social change.
The Bear Lake Needs Assessment Documentation and Visualization Project has embodied these goals, Ragland said.
An opening reception is scheduled for 5-7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 7.
usuphoto at spe w/sw regional conference
October 18, 2024
Lele Bonizzi presents their BFA thesis project during the SPE W/SW Regional Conference
USUPhoto had a great couple days at the Society for Photographic Education West/Southwest Regional Conference in Ogden, with outstanding research presentations by Professor Fazilat Soukhakian, BFA senior Lele Bonizzi, and alumna Bailey Rigby (BFA ’23).
The photo program was also well represented in the annual conference exhibition, which featured photographs by professors Soukhakian and Ragland, as well as Bonizzi and fellow BFA student Annora Madden. Bonizzi, Madden, Eli Clare, and first year graduate student Cooper Lott also participated in portfolio reviews.
alumna olivia ethington selected for midwest nice arts’ storytelling exhibition
October 1, 2024
Olivia Ethington, from the series “The things to say will be there when you need them,” 2024
USU BFA Photo alumna Olivia Ethington (’24) has a photograph included in Midwest Nice Art’s latest online exhibition, “Art as Storytelling.” Juried by Aline Smithson of Lenscratch, the show reflects all facets of contemporary art, from photographs to painting to video and sculpture. “The work is personal, political, complex, and beautiful,” Smithson says. “It’s a collection of deep seeing and thinking, so important for our world today.”
The selected photograph is from Ethington’s recent BFA thesis, “The things to say will be there when you need them,” in which Ethington visually navigates her ever-shifting relationship with her grandfather who suffers from dementia. “I never know what to expect when I walk through the door. It could be a good day, and he’ll remember my name. Or maybe it will be a bad day, and he won’t use my name for fear that he will get it wrong,” Ethington writes. “The repetition of color, light, and shape throughout the pictures reflects the cyclical conversation I have with my grandpa, the gaps in sequence mimicking the gaps in memory.”
Midwest Nice Art is a collective based in Aberdeen, South Dakota. Grounded in traditional Midwestern values, the collective integrates virtual and physical practices to support emerging and underrepresented artists.
bfa senior lele bonizzi opens ‘mães unidas,’ in usu projects gallery
September 30, 2024
Lele Bonizzi, from the series, “Mães Unidas”
“Mães Unidas,” a solo exhibition by USU senior BFA photography major Lele Bonizzi is on view September 30-October 4, 2024 at USU’s Projects Gallery.
“Mães Unidas,” features photographs from Bonizzi’s 2024 USU Peak Summer Research Fellowship, where Bonizzi joined Mães Unidas (United Mothers) to work with single mothers in Porto Seguro, Brazil. Led by and composed exclusively of women, the NGO fosters a revenue model designed to directly benefit its members by offering free training in sewing and providing an avenue for self-sustenance through the sale of crafted garments and upcycled clothing. The organization also offers free food and financial support to mothers who cannot participate in the training.
“Throughout Brazil, where half of all mothers are single, women face profound challenges—including securing stable employment, accessing education and healthcare, and providing for their families,” Bonizzi says. “The prevalence of single motherhood is deeply connected to teenage pregnancy, poor education, domestic violence, and a lack of robust social support structures. Despite the critical need, these mothers often become invisible—ostracized by a society that shames them although they are a product of its very structure.”
While in Porto Seguro, Bonizzi met with more than 20 single mothers—building meaningful connections by photographing day to day activities and conducting photo-elicitation interviews (PEI). PEI is a methodology that prioritizes collaborative storytelling and deep listening to document and facilitate conversation and understanding. The method involves creating photographs with (not strictly of) participants and then engaging them in interviews and conversations about the images, eliciting responses that illuminate understanding and create more complex, nuanced narratives. Through this approach, Bonizzi’s objective was to create a narrative that transcended a singular viewpoint, fostered a collaborative exchange, amplified participant agency, and honored the community’s identity and resilience.
Eleonora Lele Bonizzi is a fine arts documentary photographer whose work explores critical social issues, with particular emphasis on LGBTQ+ rights and immigration. Currently a senior BFA major in photography at USU, Bonizzi has exhibited their work nationally and internationally. Bonizzi is the recipient of Ralph T. Clark scholarship, 2023 and 2024 USU SARG fellowships, and is a 2024 USU Peak Fellow and USU Robins Awards Talent of the Year awardee.
The USU Projects Gallery is located on the ground floor of the USU FAV building and is open Mon-Fri, 9-5.