Eye South celebrates Southern photography with Columbus State symposium

A two-day symposium at Columbus State University begins this week that’s been years in the making.

“Eye South” is hosted by the CSU Department of Art in collaboration with the Do Good Fund and the Society for Photographic Educators. The symposium will focus on the influence of Southern culture in photography as well as address many challenges to modern photographers today.

Hannah Israel, associate professor and gallery director at CSU, is looking forward to “Eye South” and all that it has to offer patrons.

“The line up for the lectures, portfolio reviews and exhibitions are pretty amazing,” she said. “We have participants coming from all over the nation. We are honored to have the keynote speaker, Alec Soth, coming to Columbus. Alec Soth is a photographer who’s work is rooted in the American tradition of ‘on-the-road photography’ developed by Walker Evans, Robert Frank and Stephen Shore. His desire to travel and document the American culture and landscape has brought him to unique places — including Columbus, Ga.”

CSU has partnered with several other venues to establish a line up of collaborations. The Columbus Museum, W.C. Bradley Co. Museum and Uptown Inc. are just some of the external facilities hosting exhibits and events.

Rylan Steele, associate professor of art at CSU, has been anticipating this event for quite some time.

“We have been planning this symposium for a couple of years and we are excited that it is finally upon us,” he said. “The main inspiration for the conference was to bring together photographers from around the country to have a conversation about what is happening in photography right now. We will have the opportunity to dive deeper into book publishing, landscape photography, portraiture and the narrative.”

In addition to hosting esteemed speakers and photographers from all over the nation, local artist Jessica Ingram will be featured as well. Israel noted that CSU is excited to have an artist for “Eye South” with specific ties to Columbus.

“Jessica Ingram was the 2014 Visiting Artist and Scholar in Residency Program at CSU Department of Art,” she said. “While living in Columbus in 2014, Jessica started working on two projects documenting the community in Richland, Georgia, and collaborating with Carver High School in Columbus. These works have brought her back to Columbus for the past three years.”

CSU Art History Professor Michele McCrillis is also very proud of the lineup CSU has worked to establish for this event.

“It is very exciting to have this impressive group of photographers, publishers and curators together in Columbus at one time,” she said. “It is through collaborations like this that we are able to afford our students, faculty and the community unique opportunities to absorb new ideas and approaches to art.”

This story was originally published October 9, 2016 at 11:24 AM with the headline "Eye South celebrates Southern photography with Columbus State symposium."