Earlier in the semester, Associate professor Jennifer Minner invited AAP photographer William Staffeld to share his work on black and white negative films of his street photography from the 1970s and 80s during a session of her special topics seminar, “Art, Community Preservation, and the Just City.” A nostalgic discussion for Staffeld, his photos portrayed his hometown of Rochester’s nightlife, where he described his technique of long-time exposures to capture the essence of activity and people he encountered.
The class discussed photography as a tool for exploring the built environment and how it has progressed through technological innovations. “It can yield a special kind of awareness about place and time,” Minner shared.
“These images document what was once a rich and dense urban landscape that was becoming post-industrial,” said Staffeld. “As a photographer, I have come to appreciate that ‘ordinary’ people, in ordinary, not so beautiful places are transcendent, and truly remarkable when we encounter them up close.”
The project began as an independent study project while he was a photography student at the Rochester Institute of Technology. The photography Staffeld presented in Minner’s course was part of an exhibit that was featured at the college’s John Hartell Gallery in Sibley Hall in 2016.
Throughout the semester, students in the special topics class have been working towards contributing to a ‘Building Imaginaries’ prototype educational kit aimed at reaching middle school to high school youth. Each student in the class is contributing a set of activities, discussion questions, and background information organized around topics that could spur youth imagination about cities. This includes a focus on creative media for exploring the city (like street photography or mapping), the work of particular artists and artwork that critically engages with the city, or issues like urban reuse and gentrification and displacement and that relate to art and preservation.