Media are invited to a reception and awards ceremony on May 11 from 4:00-5:30 pm

Exhibition Dates: April 28 - May 16, 2009

The Department of Photography & Imaging in the Kanbar Institute of Film and Television at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts has announced the dates of its year-end show of works by the graduating class of 2009. Entitled Thesis Exhibition, the show will open on April 28 and be on view through May 16.

Thesis Exhibition will be on view in the Gulf+Western Gallery (rear lobby) and the Photo Center Gallery (8th Floor) at 721 Broadway. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays, and noon to 5 pm Saturdays. The exhibition is open to the public and admission is free. Photo identification is required for access to the building. For further information, call 212.998.1930.

To view a sample of the images on display as a slideshow, (it will open in another window) please click here.

Thesis Exhibition comprises approximately 200 works selected from the students’ thesis projects, representing the visual and conceptual diversity of the department’s class of 2009. The 28 graduates featured in the exhibition are: Stephanie Broad, Julia Burlingham, Katherine Carey, Erica Dobin, Moudy Elkammash, Bryan Gursky Jordan Reznick, Katelyn Roof, Kimberly Schreiber, Kally Fundingsland, Sarah Getto, Julie Goldstone, Jess Krakowski, Lexi Lambros, Gabrielle Lurie, Krystal Lin, Natalie Olzack, Dan Sakamoto, Melanie Glass, Rikki Gunton, Ani Kington, Rachel Klein, Kelly Kollar, Collin LaFleche, Jackie Munro, Yuta Nakajima, Damien Saatdjian, and Zachary Susskind.

In the artists’ own words, the works on view include: Stephanie Broad’s black-and-white large format images of urban construction, which represent the loss of what was and the anticipation of what is to come; Julia Burlingham’s series of four books and posters in which the surreal, exotic, and sculptural elements of photography are explored in the fashion of autobiography, mystery, and free association; Katherine Carey’s Every time I landed here, a body of work that speaks to the poetic and ephemeral nature of beauty in the everyday; Erica Dobin’s photographs taken over a period of three months and focusing on medical care, family, and religion in Cuba is a collaborative effort by five individuals; Moudy Elkammash’s color photographs are uneasy but beautiful landscapes that depict the world’s impending end; Bryan Gursky exhibits a selection of photographs from his fashion portfolio; Jordan Reznick’s Still Life is an uncanny meditation on death as the untold fable that escapes our fallible understanding; Katelyn Roof presents a multimedia construction, If my brain was a room, it would look like this — flashing colors, chaos, pulsing images and static on the insides of my eyelids; Kimberly Schreiber’s Vibrations, Exposed Hallucinations, and Migrations from the Womb to the Tomb is a mixed media installation exploring travel within interior and exterior worlds.

Kally Fundingsland investigates attraction and cinematic influence with lighting and art direction by using the photographic lens to deconstruct the cinematic gaze, bringing up themes of gender, sexuality, punishment, and death in the horror genre; Sarah Getto uses the camera as a vehicle for arriving at a closer understanding of feminine and maternal archetypes through an in-depth series of portraits of her mother that are intimately concerned with the subject’s life as a woman and wife; Julie Goldstone’s Somewhere Else is a take on the rhythms of the 21st century and a study of the way in which we create ephemeral little worlds in the midst of constant flux; Jess Krakowski explores the relationship between movement and traditional uses of domestic space in a video installation; Lexi Lambros’ images depict a larger whole through a critical comparison of the size of the human body in relation to the environment; Gabrielle Lurie presents a series of images from India that investigate her own experiences and the genre of photojournalism; Krystal Lin presents a multimedia installation entitled This is about capacity; Natalie Olzack reinterprets images and stories so as to embrace their comingling associations through an installation that questions the arrangement of narrative by inviting the viewer to reconstruct a new story from her photographs; Dan Sakamoto has built a family of techno-beings which blur the line between inanimate object and living creatures that can be observed and made to react to people-but one can only wonder what goes on inside their heads?

Melanie Glass’ series Pendleton, Oregon documents one of the last remaining wild wild west rodeos in the United States; Rikki Gunton’s project, a combination of photographs and audio interviews, focuses on a homeless community in Washington Square Park; Ani Kington’s photographs portray her experiences in Ecuador, a country undergoing various transitions; Rachel Klein photographs light as subject, fixing ephemeral moments from our everyday surroundings for reexamination; Kelly Kollar’s video and stills depict the individual experiences and shared existence of a Brooklyn-based immigrant and refugee community from the war-torn region of Darfur, Sudan; Collin LaFleche’s series HAUPTSTADT is a collection of images taken during a summer spent in Germany and Eastern Europe, and explores themes of banality, commercialism, sexuality, and the body; Jackie Munro’s photographs of hotel rooms after people check out but before they were cleaned document her interest in the journeys of strangers; Yuta Nakajima’s photographs, inspired by Marcel Proust’s writings, document ordinary objects that we often overlook or forget about with time; Damien Saatdjian’s photographs evoke time and memory, focusing on the dilemma of living in paradise; and Zachary Susskind pursues scenes where the tension between potential and indulgence, creativity and stagnation, life and wasted life seem to define the current essence and dynamic of today’s Los Angeles.


The Department of Photography & Imaging at the Tisch School of the Arts is a four-year B.F.A. program centered on the making and understanding of images. Students explore photo-based imagery as personal and cultural expression. Situated within New York University, the program offers students both the intensive focus of an arts curriculum and a serious and broad grounding in the liberal arts.

Press Contact

Richard Pierce
Richard Pierce
(212) 998-6796