Student Peers:
A Retrospective

During the latter years of the 1970's I became interested in photography and consequently enrolled in a curriculum of study at the Antonelli School of Photography in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Antonelli's offered a two year associates degree. Enrolled in my class were approximately 60 other students interested in pursuing careers in commercial advertising, portrait or wedding photography.

As a class we learned the basics of posing, lighting and camera work together, often using each other as subjects, taking turns before the camera as both sitter and photographer. For the most part these assigned photographs were highly technical as we developed our mastery of lighting, posing and camera technique.

There were times between classes and scheduled studio times when we were all able to relax, snooze, or chat about photography, or life in general. Most of this down time took place in one of two small lounges on the north side of the building occupied by the Antonelli School. The portraits in this exhibit were made in the fifth floor lounge using available window light. All of them are more or less impromptu: In some cases they were made very hastily, for instance if I noticed the light during a conversation. The 8 photographs in the top row are of students in my own class and were recorded on various occasions through out my two years as a student from 1978 to 1980. The bottom three rows are students who entered Antonelli's after my graduation and were photographed in 1982.