ON LOCATION by Frank Miller In a basement studio in the Art Building, past and present merge in a creative photographic project. Instagram and cellphones define popular photography in the 21st century. But for the past three years, Willamette associate professor of art Alexandra Opie has experimented with tintypes, a photographic medium most popular at the time of the Civil War. Using a process that's tricky and temperamental, Opie has captured some 300 portraits, often of Willamette faculty, staff and students. In an ingenious twist, she layers transparencies of 19th-century portraits between the lens and the photographic plate. Then, the subject — in this case, President Thorsett — adopts a pose to fit into the posture of the original subject. The resulting composite images are at once contemporary and historical. “The careful layering of past and present yields ghostly, curious objects,” says Opie. Opie plans to introduce this old-made-new art form into her photography curriculum next year. Learn more at www.alexandraopie.com, and see her exhibit at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art, April 18– May 17, 2015
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SPRING 2015