Campus News 2002-2003 Academic Year

Photo Wall Shares Collective Experience

It started simply enough. David Colman, a sophomore media studies and economics major, wanted to capture Pitzer life from many angles. About 4,000 pictures later, he had almost as many angles as there are students at the Claremont Colleges.

There are about 3,500 pictures mounted on the wall inside the McConnell Center cafeteria, the majority of which came from disposable cameras distributed to students, staff and faculty at Pitzer. David spent more than 20 hours sorting through the thousands of photos to put the project together. And that doesn't include the countless hours working with various committees to get the project off the ground.

"At first the project was going to be restricted to certain portions of the Pitzer community, but later we found that we were going to be able to give the cameras to everyone in the college community," David said. "Everyone was given about three weeks to take the photos under a brief set of guidelines set forth by the Dean of Students' office."

Though there was concern about the kinds of shots students might take, only three photos were eliminated from the project, David said. Apparently they depicted a rather unsavory angle of Pitzer life.

The project not only provided snapshots of Pitzer life, it gave David a real sense of students' views of the years they spend here.

"I learned how forthcoming students are as they shared their lives through the pictures. The photos show that there are few divides among students and the community in general," David said.