Photography students from the University of Arkansas – Fort Smith and Northside High School are showing a joint exhibition at UAFS entitled “3.” The exhibit is on display through Jan. 18, when a closing reception will be held from 5-7 p.m. in Windgate Art & Design, located at 535 N. Waldron Road.

The exhibition features work by both groups of students from a final semester project offered by Bryan Alexis, associate professor of graphic design at UAFS, in collaboration with Leigh Ann Hasley, photography teacher at Northside. Students were required to create a series of three photos around an idea or theme and write accompanying artist statements.

Alexis, who teaches the digital photography class at UAFS, said the Northside class elevated the work of the photography students at UAFS.

“I could see that the two groups inspired one another to push their concepts harder and to experiment with new photographic methods,” he said.

“I have always been into photography. But in high school, I was always self-conscious of my work because I didn’t think I was adequate enough, so it made me become discouraged and not do photography,” said Hannah Hayden of Greenwood, a graphic design major. “But after taking a photography class in college, it helped with my confidence in shooting.”

“Communicating with high schoolers that have the same passion that I had then was uplifting for them but it also encouraged me,” Hayden continued. “Seeing their great work at that level in their life made me realize that no matter how inadequate we may feel, with hard work, passion, and finding something you love, you can do anything you want.”

Hasley also saw numerous benefits for the Northside students in the collaboration.

"Once we had the critique of the images for the series, my students realized just how much thought went into the work from the UAFS students,” she said. “The project definitely showed these high school juniors how to expand their skills in photography and the creative process."

Junior Crisely Hernandez of Northside agreed.

“It was a different type of assignment, because I was able to see the creativity in other's work outside of Northside and their point of view of photographing these subjects,” Hernandez said.

The exhibit is free and open to the public and will be held in the Don Lee Student Gallery on the second floor of the Windgate Art & Design. The reception will be held in conjunction with the premiere of the 2019 state tour exhibit “Arkansas Women to Watch: Heavy Metal” in the main gallery.

Northside students exhibiting work are:

Fort Smith: Maria Abeyta, Ragon Cook, Crisely Hernandez, Isabel Hernadez, Sapphanie Le, Allison Kinsey, Maria Vasquez, Ana Villenueva, Alana Walls, Brennan Ward and Cooper Zuerker.

UAFS students exhibiting work are:

Alma: Clayton McMurray.

Fort Smith: Victoria Brazil, Helen Lively and Kimberly Phan.

Greenwood: Hannah Hayden, Karina Labrada and Hayla May.

Mountainburg: Ryder Chang.

Muldrow, Okla.: Jacob Casher.

Van Buren: Lauren Copher and Arthur Luangsiyotha.

For more information, contact Alexis at 479-788-7240 or bryan.alexis@uafs.edu.