4th-Year Photography Students from UVa

Opening Receptions on Friday, May 2nd & Friday, May 9th.
For the third year running, The Bridge will host an exhibition of new photographic works from UVA’s graduating class. The exhibits showcase the images of 6 students and will be presented in two parts this May.

The first round, including works by Jamie McCelland, Vincent Mendiola & Uyen-Vi Tran, will open Friday, May 2nd and will be followed by a second exhibition of works by Liz Freer, Cecilia Steele and Jessica Schnittka on Friday May 9th.

The Opening Receptions for both exhibits will be held from 6-9pm at The Bridge on consecutive Fridays.

For photos and descriptions of the work, please read below.

Jessica Schnittka: “‘Middle Girls’ and it is a documentary project that delves into the lives of two cliques of 7th grade girls at a local middle school. With this project, I am trying to capture girls stuck in the middle- they don’t quite know who they are, and are struggling to define themselves.”

Vincent Mendiola: “My current body of work started with an interest in building sets in order to create a photograph. I began with the goal of creating recognizable structures: a diner and a drive-in movie theater. These places are easily recognized as markers in American history and culture, and serve as mementos that have been transformed into novelties. Structurally, these sets are constructed based on images compiled from popular culture and not from personal experience or memory. Unconventional lighting is used to prevent the models from becoming representations of the real-world structures. These models are not meant to appear as exact manifestations of their larger counterparts, but fictions with their foundations in recognizable American structures.”

Uyen-Vi Tran: “I am interested in portrait photography because it grants us permission to carefully inspect a person and his features in a way that we are not allowed to in public. This series explores the relationship between figure and environment. I am drawn to spaces that create a mixed feeling of privacy and limitless through a contrast in aesthetics. As portrait photography allows us the intimate distance to study a person’s features, I think there is also a sense of intimacy felt in a shared environment where interactions may or may not take place.”

Elizabeth Freer: “I am working on vertical landscapes that focus on the usually unseen beauty that surrounds the area of Old Lynchburg Rd.–it is titled ‘Old Lynchburg.’ My pictures show a close analysis of nature. They are simple and geometric, yet there is a soft focus that suggests a rawness found only in nature. My pictures are an attempt to return our attention to the forgotten beauty of nature as an original inspiration for many great photographers. They represent an older artistic portrayal of beauty for beauty’s sake.”