Photo students display work from Japan trip

Last summer, 11 IU undergraduates, graduate students and professors traveled thousands of miles to Osaka, Japan, with one thing on their minds: communication. \nThe group of Americans aimed to capture “communication” in photographic form, and they only had four weeks to do it.\nAt 8 p.m. Friday, the Art Hospital, 1021 S. Walnut St., will host their work in an exhibit titled “IU Overseas: Japan Photography Exhibit.” The exhibit will feature individual and collaborative work by the students during their month-long excursion in the Land of the Rising Sun. Photography graduate student Kevin Mooney explained the program, and said last summer’s was the first photography program in Japan for IU students.\n“James Nakagawa, in the photo department, wanted to have a program similar to Jeff Wolin’s program in Paris,” Mooney said.\nDue to the success of the Osaka trip, the School of Fine Arts now offers both programs in the summer during alternating years, Mooney said.\nJapan Institute of Photography and Film, the host school in Japan, allowed the IU visitors to use its facilities and equipment, he said. \nThe students were then put into groups with students from the Japanese school who didn’t speak English.\n“Only one of the students in our group could speak Japanese,” Mooney said. \nThe theme of “communication” was definitely put to the test with a language barrier in place, he said.\n“The collaborative project had to be done in four weeks, and they had to come up with an idea and produce the work.” \nAt the end of four weeks, the students from both schools presented a show of their best photographs, Mooney said.\nHis own personal piece with Nakagawa was a mandala, or circular design, of photographs taken in Hiroshima. \n“We made portraits of (Nakagawa), myself, and the nine students around the A-Bomb Museum,” he said.\nThe A-bomb Dome is an iconic structure that was one of the only buildings left in the aftermath of the atom bomb dropped at the end of World War II, Mooney said.\n“The picture of the A-bomb Dome is in the center, and the 11 of us are in circling prints around the dome,” he said.\n“IU Overseas: Japan Photography Exhibit” will soon be replaced by the December exhibition of work from the SoFA study-abroad programs. In that exhibit, all of the fine arts programs that took place in other countries will display their work together. \nThe photography department wanted its own exhibit to show off the individual works of the students in Osaka and the project overall was not just about “communication” but more about the experience of being in Japan, Mooney said.