Photography students pitch in for Festival International exhibit project

Students at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette are curating a photography retrospective that will showcase the history of Festival International de Louisiane.

UL Lafayette photography students are culling through hundreds of images, and will select a handful, for an exhibition that will commemorate the 30th anniversary of Festival International.

The yearly music and arts festival attracts dozens of musicians and artists, and thousands of attendees, from around the world. It began in 1987. One of its founders was Herman Mhire, then director of University Art Museum at UL Lafayette. Students in Professor Lynda Frese’s Intermediate and Advanced Photography course will choose three or four images from each year of the festival. Those images will be displayed on about three dozen, double-sided placards that are about eight feet tall.
The displays will be placed at spots around downtown Lafayette during the festival, which will be held April 20-24. They will feature diverse subject matter, including performers, and festival-goers dancing or enjoying works of art, Frese explained.
“The idea is to capture some of the playfulness of the festival and the energy of the crowd and the festival scenes. The photographs will offer a window into how the festival has changed over the years, as well as the different styles and approaches of the photographers,” she said.

The project enables students to gain experience combing through archives of film and digital photos, and to make decisions about narrowing those images to a number that represent the evolution of the festival, said Jonathon Ahhee, a senior from Lafayette majoring in visual arts.

Students also are collaborating with designers at Pixus Digital Printing, the Lafayette company that will produce the placards. They are giving input about which materials will be used for the displays and offering layout suggestions.

“Helping to curate and edit the photos, and working with designers, gives us valuable professional experience,” Ahhee said. “It’s a really interesting project.”
Photo info: Chris Young, of Pixus Digital Printing, far left, met with UL Lafayette photography students to discuss a project to create a photographic exhibit for Festival International de Louisiane. Pictured with Young, clockwise from left, are Kyla Rodrique, Elizabeth McNabb, Stevi Latiolais, James Billeaudeau, Lacie Dugas, Seth Cook, Jessica Wray, Bridget Curry, Kara Doney, Kate Rogers, and their professor Lynda Frese.