2nd Annual Summer Social Event !

On Saturday, August 2nd, the Photography and Cinema Alumni Society will be holding it's second annual Summer Social event.

As many may recall, last summer’s event at the home of Pat Williamsen was a huge success. The theme was recognition of the 10th anniversary of the closing of the Department and the vitality of the Society.

We all enjoyed the chance to visit with one another and catch up. In that same spirit, we hope that you will attend this year’s event to meet up with old friends, network and enjoy a casual evening.

This year's Summer Social will be held again at the home of Pat Williamsen (57 Hiawatha Avenue in Westerville, Ohio).

The get-together will start around 4pm and last until 8pm or later (if Pat doesn't throw us out!).

Please RSVP Pat Williamsen at 614-882-4171 or email at ohmedia@aol.com. Bring a chair, a covered dish and the beverage of your choice. If you choose to attend, take I-270 to the Route 3/Westerville exit (heading North), proceed one mile North on Route 3 and turn left onto Hiawatha.

Alumni Updates

Tom Allen has a 30 print photographic exhibit of the Canadian high arctic at the Upper Arlington Public Library in Columbus through April 30, 2003. Tom now lives near Westport Ontario, 30 miles north of Kingston, in lake country, with his wife Olga Kukal whom he married in 1990. Olga has turned him into a biophysicist and they have been working in the arctic (Ellesmere and Axel Heiberg Islands) almost every summer since 1990. Tom has also photographed their extensive travels to Europe, Asia, and South America including Japan, Thailand, Chile, and Prague.

Alumnus Chris Wedge (Art Education) is the creative force behind last year's box office hit Ice Age, which has been nominated for Best Animated Feature Film of the Year at the 75th Academy Awards. Wedge, founder of Blue Sky Studios in New York, is director of 20th Century Fox's Ice Age. He was assisted on the film by two other grads - co-producer John Donkin (BFA ‘93) and technical director Wooksang Chang (Art & Technology). The three studied at ACCAD while at OSU. Donkin was here last November for a screening of Ice Age at the Wexner Center. Two other College of the Arts alumni recently joined Blue Sky Studios - Ian Butterfield (2002) and Steve Martino (1982). Wedge won an Oscar in 1999 for his short film Bunny. His studio is working on a sequel to Ice Age.

New Chris Awards Executive Director

Susan Halpern (MA '87) has been chosen as the new Executive Director of the Greater Columbus Film Council. The Film Council is the organization that runs the Columbus International Film and Video Festival, also known as the Chris Awards.

Susan ran a small film festival, known as the Columbus Video Festival, at the Department of Photography & Cinema while working towards her Master's Degree. Since then she has been working as an independent film and video artist as well as free-lancing in various positions around Columbus, most recently as an Assistant Avid Editor at Character Builders. She has also as an instructor and artist in residence/visiting artist at schools across the Midwest.

After the 2001 Chris Awards, long time Executive Director, Rico Long (faculty) resigned from his position. A new director was hired for the 2002 Chris Awards but had to resign due to health reasons. Susan is the fourth person to run the organization.

The Film Council has also elected a new Chairperson. Linda Thornburg (MA '74), who served as the first vice-president of the Alumni Society. An another alumnus on the council's executive committee is Walter Burbach (BFA '87) who continues in his role as treasurer after being appointed to that position last year.

This year marks the 51st year of the Columbus International Film Festival. The festival is one of the most prestigious and long running festivals for non-theatrical work in the nation. For many years the festival was one of only a handful around the nation that could nominate entries to the Academy Awards.

Entries are being accepted now. The entry deadline is July 1. The festival will be held in mid November at the Columbus College of Art and Design.

For more information about the Chris Awards, their web site at www.chrisawards.org or call them at 841-1666.

2002 Annual Meeting

The annual meeting of the OSU Photography & Cinema Alumni Society was held on Saturday, December 21 at the Twilight Bistro, in downtown Columbus. The Bistro opened their doors early especially for us and provided an excellent brunch.

The board members elected at the meeting were: Eleanor Block, Walter Burbach, John DeSando, Chris Konik, Rico Long, Holly Longfellow, Clay Lowe, Jeff Rycus, Tom Snider, and Pat Williamsen.

An American in Dresden

A new photographic exhibit opened downtown on April 2, 2003 at the Columbus College of Art and Design's Acock Gallery inside Canzani Center. Photography and Cinema alumnus Fred Marsh (BFA '80), now a senior lecturer in the Department of Art at Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio, hosted his exhibit Dresden Reliquary which chronicled his Greater Columbus Arts Council Dresden, Germany residency last June through September 2002. His residency with the horrific flooding that occurred in parts of Europe last September. Dresden Reliquary will be on display through April 25, 2003 and the exhibition was made possible by an Ohio Arts Council Artists Project Grant.

Fred spoke to a standing room only crowd about the nature of the GCAC residency process, his curiosity in documenting a unfamiliar European urban landscape, structural remains of the Soviet occupation, and the decisions he made in capturing particular images. He shot about 150 rolls of 120mm film, almost entirely in black and white, using primarily a Noblex panoramic camera. Fred has owned this camera for several years, using it mainly in recent trips to the southwest. Ironically, this camera was designed and manufactured in Dresden. The Mamiya Corporation of America kindly lent him over $8,000 of 6 x 7 cm rangefinder gear which he also photographed with. The group of 25 gallery images were printed on the latest generation Epson 7-color ink jet printer to 17 x 41 inch dimensions on 24 x 48 inch sheets of rag paper. He feels this printing process combined the best of his photographic and printmaking skills and he is developing this group of images into a fine arts portfolio for publication by the end of this summer under the imprint of the Podhola Press named after his Bohemian great grandfather, Josef Podhola. Prof. Joel Snyder, University of Chicago will write the key essay and additional esays will be written by Dr. Andreas Krase (Berlin) and Susanne Altmann (Dresden). Text will be in both English and German.

A reception followed at 6:00 pm with many familiar faces in attendance: John Fergus-Jean (faculty), on the photography faculty at CCAD, Ardine Nelson, Interim Chair of the Department at OSU, Lynn Campbell (MA '76), and Holly Longfellow (MA '95). The exhibition will travel to Denver, Colorado for a May 30 - July 15 exhibition at Gallery Sink. Other venues it will visit next year including College for Creative Studies, Detroit, the Baldwin Gallery, Middle Tennessee State University and University of Notre Dame in 2004. The show will also travel to the Technische Sammlungen Museum in Dresden, Germany during the fall of 2004.

American Splendor
Featured at 2003 Cleveland International Film Festival

American Spendor opened the 27th Cleveland International Film Festival (CIFF) on Thursday, March 20, 2003. HBO Films' American Spendor will be released theatrically in mid-August in association with Fine Line Features.

The film, written and directed by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, stars Paul Giamatti and Hope Davis and was produced by Ted Hope. The Dramatic Grand Jury Prize winner at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival, American Spendor profiles the life of comic book writer and Clevelander, Harvey Pekar, and is based on Pekar's "American Splendor" comics and "Our Cancer Year" by Pekar and his wife, Joyce Brabner.

Filmed entirely in Cleveland, American Spendor uses film, video, and animation to create a structure in which images of the real-life Pekar are intercut with that of his onscreen persona, played by Paul Giamatti.

Berman and Pulcini began their collaboration at Columbia Film School. Their award-winning debut documentary, Off the Menu: The Last Days of Chasen's, was named one of the "Ten Best Movies of 1998" by USA Today and CNN. Their follow-up film, The Young and the Dead, premiered at the 2000 Venice Film Festival and also aired on HBO. The team has several films in development, including the New Line comedy, Family Planning, and A.K.A. Romanoff. American Spendor is their first narrative feature film.

The Cleveland International Film Festival is a program of the Cleveland Film Society, which is a not-for-profit arts and education organization. www.clevelandfilm.org.

LENS & LIGHT is a publication of The Ohio State University Photography & Cinema Alumni Society.

Lens & Light Editor: Chris Konik

The articles in this newsletter include materials submitted by Janet Adams, Walter Burbach, Holly Longfellow, and Tom Snider. Lens & Light logo designed by Bob Yothers. OSU Photography & Cinema logo designed by Bobby Porto. We always welcom news from alumni. Mail submissions to Chris Konik, PO Box 12366, Columbus, OH 43212 or email chriskonik@mindspring.com.

The Societies first President and Vice-President, Pat Williamsen and Linda Thornburg

New Fund Raising Program

The Ohio State University Photography & Cinema Alumni Society has become a part of the Amazon.com Associates Program. If you're going to shop at Amazon.com please click the icon below or those on other pages at this site. A small percentage of purchases you make at Amazon.com if are referred there through this site go to the Alumni Assocation. Thanks!

Annual Meeting Pictures

Rico Long reacts to his election as a 2003 Board Member as Chris Konik shares the moment.

Pat Williamsen is either scanning the menu of looking for typos in the meeting minutes.