Open Shutter presented its photography exhibit “Unfiltered,” which showcased 25 photographs taken by Northwestern students during trips around the globe, onThursday. The event, which took place in Norris University Center, was one of the first during NU’s annual Global Engagement Summit.
The Open Shutter contest began with the first GES in 2003 and emphasizes breaking down cultural barriers and building community through the unbiased lens of photography, according to the GES website.
More than 100 photographs were submitted, according to SESP junior and Open Shutter co-chair Emily Roskey.
Weinberg sophomore Alyssa Petersel, who is part of the Open Shutter committee, said the committee put a lot of time into choosing photographs they felt fit the theme, yet were still dignified and culturally sensitive.
“We take dignity into consideration and don’t want to make any country seem under the United States,” she said.
Communication junior Samantha Beach said she spent a lot of time trying to choose which photograph to submit to the contest.
Beach, who volunteered at an orphanage while studying abroad in Ghana in the fall, ended up deciding on a photo she snapped of a child holding up a picture he had drawn to represent “family.”
“I had a lot of really pretty pictures of landscape and stuff, but Open Shutter is about complicating your view and what challenged me most was working with these kids,” she said. “It made me rethink things like privilege. It was just interesting to think about this kid’s idea of home.”
Every photo was submitted along with a short story like Beach’s, explaining what the photograph was about. One room of the exhibit was devoted to this aspect of the project and showed the images projected on a screen with accompanying audio recordings of the photographers describing their photo’s story.
It was interesting to look at the pictures and then read the stories, Petersel said, because many of them were not what is first envisioned when looking at the photos.
“We encourage viewers to see from an unbiased perspective – as it is, rather than from a 19-year-old, college perspective,” she said. “You can really appreciate people’s different reactions to everything and see that not everyone thinks like you.”
Brady Collins, a GES delegate from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, said he thought the everyday life moments portrayed in the photographs allowed viewers to relate to people who they may not realize they share experiences with.
“I guess the idea is to create a sense of solidarity and empathy between different people,” he said.
Another GES delegate from London, Faizah Mohammoud, said the exhibit gave him hope that young people could create social change. “It was nice to see that all of you (students) travel all over the world and that you care,” he said.
A silent auction of all the photographs accompanied the exhibit with the funds going to one of the delegates to help fund her project. This year’s winner, as voted on by the Open Shutter committee, will create a documentary on the people of Burma that aims to portray the nation in a more positive light.
The exhibit will remain in the Louis and Big Ten rooms until Friday evening.
