UB Art Student Selected for International Photography Fellowship

Deborah Jack, second-year master-of-fine-arts student, is one of 20 graduate students nationwide selected to attend the International Photography Institute's National Graduate Seminar at New York University this June.

While at NYU, Jack and the others will spend two weeks attending intense seminars where they will meet with working artists, gallery directors, critics and journalists from New York City, and tour the institute's gallery.

"The challenge will be keeping up with all they throw at you. There will be a lot of information given and to take it all in will be a challenge," said Jack. "The seminar also provides you with a lot of reading material before you even get there so everyone has to be prepared to jump right in. ... They told us, 'Don't make any friends, just stick to your work.'"

Fellows were culled from 76 finalists from 41 schools. Jack was nominated by Tyrone Georgiou, Jolene Rickard and Marion Faller, members of UB's photography department.

"It's a jumping off point for her. She's a very talented and bright artist. She has great potential and her work is very interesting and very current," said Georgiou.

Discussions based on the theme "The Projected Image: From Visual to Political" will be the basis for student essays published at the end of the seminar.

Other assignments will include a presentation by the master-of-fine-arts-photography department of each fellow's university, showing slides of the work of other graduate students and a presentation of each fellow's own work. Jack's presentation will include some of her videos and still photos.

"I'm excited about it. The discussions should be great. These are some of the top grad students so hopefully there will be lively debates," she said.

Jack said she has always been interested in images. "As a child, National Geographic and Life were always in our house. I liked the images and the power of them. Photojournalism has always been my favorite genre."

Jack intends to pursue a career in art, teaching at the university level and balancing her time between the United States and St. Martin, where she is originally from.

In the past 10 years, only four other students from UB have been selected as to receive the fellowship. The last student from UB to attend the seminar was Craig Smith, four years ago.