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11/13/2024 | News release | Distributed by Public on 11/13/2024 11:57

New 808 Gallery Show Celebrates the Vision and Talent of BU Staff Photographers

New 808 Gallery Show Celebrates the Vision and Talent of BU Staff Photographers

Moments in Photography offers a tantalizing glimpse of life on campus and far beyond

808 Gallery visitors view photos by Jackie Ricciardi, a BU staff photojournalist, at the reception for Moments in Photography, an exhibition of work by BU photographers.

Fine Arts

New 808 Gallery Show Celebrates the Vision and Talent of BU Staff Photographers

Moments in Photography offers a tantalizing glimpse of life on campus and far beyond

November 13, 2024
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You may have seen them at a BU event holding a camera up to their face, capturing the action from every angle. Maybe you were featured in a BU publication and one of them came by to take your picture. Or perhaps you've just spotted them roaming the campus, gear bag over one shoulder, looking at the world through a lens.

For nearly a decade, BU photographers Cydney Scott, Janice Checchio, and Jackie Ricciardi have been recording daily life on the University's campuses, attending hundreds of events and taking hundreds more portraits of students, faculty, and staff for stories that appear in BU Today, in Bostonia, BU's alumni magazine, and in many of the University's individual school publications.

In addition, each photographer has had a storied career outside of BU and each has a unique way of looking through the lens. The work of the three talented artists is now the subject of a new show, Moments in Photography, on view at the 808 Gallery through December 3. The exhibition of nearly three dozen images offers a career retrospective of the work of Scott, Checchio, and Ricciardi and consists of photographs from around BU and around the world.

Photography from senior photojournalist Cydney Scott (left), photojournalist Jackie Ricciardi, and associate creative director Janice Checchio are on display in the Moments in Photography show. Photo by Eric Haynes

Inspired by "surrealism, mythology, and nature"

"As I went through my work at BU and my recent personal projects, I started noticing similarities between the two groups, like color choices, compositions, and use of lighting," says Checchio (CFA'07), associate creative director of photography at BU Marketing & Communications. "I wanted to lean into that feeling and essentially create diptychs with a BU-related photo and a personal photo."

Checchio's work is inspired by "surrealism, mythology, and nature," according to text by curators Bo Yeon Chon (GRS'26), Sarah Harper (GRS'24), and Bailey Pekar (GRS'24). Of the three photographers, her work is the most visibly influenced by art photography. The exhibition includes photos from a yearlong self-portrait project, for which Checchio earned a 2021 Mass Cultural Council Fellowship in Photography, and its dreamlike composition, cinematic lighting, touch of eccentric humor carries over into her BU work.

A Checchio self-portrait, with her prone on the floor, head obscured by an ominous, shadowy Christmas tree and feet splayed out like a Hitchcock victim, hangs next to a photo of a BU student lying on her back on the Esplanade beneath a leafless early-spring tree, her face obscured by the book she's reading. Another photo of her from the legs down, standing in bright blue shoes near a curve of white boundary paint on a teal athletic court is similarly paired with a photo of an empty classroom-blue desk chairs in front of a blue wall, a swipe of white light illuminating the scene from a window out of frame.

#346, part of a 366-day photography project by Janice Checchio

"An eye-catching image can make people pause," Checchio says. "I like to approach photos like a painting, with thoughtfulness towards composition, light, and color, even if it's a painting I'm not in full control of."

I like to approach photos like a painting, with thoughtfulness towards composition, light, and color, even if it's a painting I'm not in full control of
Janice Checchio (CFA'07), BU associate creative director of photography

Compelled by human stories

Scott's work in Moment's in Photography offers an arresting depiction of human emotions, captured with the same intimacy in crowd settings and private moments. A senior photojournalist at BU, Scott told the student curators that she was inspired by the work of Alfred Eisenstaedt, the hugely influential mid-20th century Life magazine photographer known for his depiction of everyday Americans. The influence of street photography-scenes of community life-is apparent in both her BU work and her independent work, but it's perhaps most noticeable in her images of life on campus: a society in miniature.

"None of the photos have a particularly unique story because they are, for the most part, capturing everyday life, but I do remember how impressed I was with the grad student holding her baby in her commencement gown," says Scott of one photo on view: a scarlet-clad graduate in cap and gown waiting in the wings behind a stage curtain to receive her diploma, kissing the head of a baby who stares confidently into the camera. "She had given birth to the little one and a twin during spring break, then returned right back to school to finish up the year to graduate on time," Scott recalls.

Members of the BU Dance Team after the close of the 2018 National Dance Alliance Collegiate Cheer and Dance Championship. Photo by Cydney Scott

Human stories are what compel Scott. She says she's drawn to subjects who can give her the time, insight, and vulnerability required to make a truly sensational photo. Included in the exhibition are six photos she took of the BU Dance Team in 2018 as they competed at the annual National Dance Alliance Collegiate Cheer and Dance Championship in Daytona, Fla. Her images capture the team members' determination, exhaustion, and exhilaration on the road to the event. .

They "are a sliver of a broader story I did on the Dance Team and they always make me smile," Scott reflects. "That group immediately welcomed me into the fold, and I was able to really get a sense of who they were as people, students, and dancers."

The quiet amongst the chaos

Ricciardi, a BU staff photojournalist, applies a unique process to her craft, using a meditative, contemplative approach that stresses long-term observation and patience. Some of her work in the show is taken from her long-form Rite of Passage series, where she followed entering freshmen as they prepared for the beginning of their journey to BU. Her visual impact is strongest when she applies her strategy of sideline observation to quicker-paced assignments, like a game of pickup basketball or the chaos of Move-in weekend. It's in these settings that Ricciardi leverages her honed powers of observation to draw out the hidden poetry in an image, whether it's a lone figure cast in shadow while dribbling a basketball or a student, back to the camera, with a bright pink cello case strapped to their back.

"We've all seen the excitement that surrounds Move-in day or a crowd of students playing basketball at FitRec, [but] I tend to gravitate toward the quiet amongst the chaos," she says. "I think these types of images align with my introverted nature."

According to Chon, one of the student curators, the show marks a departure from BU Art Galleries' previous offerings, by showcasing the day-to-day work of BU staff.

"Rather than simply capturing events or documenting moments, the works by these photographers reveal their own creative visions," she says. "I hope this exhibition allows the BU community a chance to engage with the [photos] beyond their original context and shine a light on these amazing women photographers whose presence is often behind the scenes."

A student with a pink cello during Move-in weekend in 2017. Photo by Jackie Ricciardi

By contextualizing each BU assignment with the outside endeavors of the photographers and their individual ways of seeing, Chon hopes to spark a larger conversation about photojournalism: can it be more than the sum of its parts? Is it fine art? The question can be contentious-and is something that larger art institutions have tackled recently. It's a question that Checchio, Scott, and Ricciardi each have a different answer to.

"I think a really good photojournalistic photo can be considered art when the person behind the camera is able to look at a scene differently than most, is able to press the shutter the moment that all of the elements line up, the light and shadows, the emotions, the composition," Ricciardi says. "It doesn't happen often when you think, I couldn't have made this more perfect in my mind. But when it does, I think that is art."

Moments in Photography: Works by Janice Checchio, Jackie Ricciardi, and Cydney Scott is on view at the 808 Gallery, 808 Comm Ave., through December 3. Entrance to the gallery is free and hours are 11 am to 5 pm Tuesday through Saturday.

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New 808 Gallery Show Celebrates the Vision and Talent of BU Staff Photographers

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  • Sophie Yarin

    Associate Editor, BU Today; Managing Editor Bostonia

    Sophie Yarin is a BU Today associate editor and Bostonia managing editor. She graduated from Emerson College's journalism program and has experience in digital and print publications as a hybrid writer/editor. A lifelong fan of local art and music, she's constantly on the hunt for stories that shine light on Boston's unique creative communities. She lives in Jamaica Plain with her partner and their cats, Ringo and Xerxes, but she's usually out getting iced coffee. Profile

  • Eric Haynes

    Eric Haynes Profile

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