Smile Politely

Institute 4 Creativity photography exhibit and opening reception

The Institute 4 Creativity (111 S. Walnut Street, Champaign) is hosting a photography exhibit featuring work by Roger Inman, W. T. Payne, and Jessica Lewis Watson from January 18 – February 15. Gallery hours are Mondays – Fridays from 3 – 8 p.m. and Saturdays from 1-4 p.m.

The exhibit’s opening reception is this Saturday, January 18, from 7 – 9 p.m. The event is free and open to the public and will feature music by local stringband Flatville Ditch. 

More about each photographer:

Roger Inman

 

The photographs you’ll be seeing span over forty years of taking pictures for the fun of it, documenting the odd and the interesting things in my world. Taking pictures with a client or potential commercial application in mind would change the way I see things and the way I take pictures. These photographs were taking to please me – no one else. They have never been assembled into a show before.

Roger Inman has a BA and an MS from the University of Illinois from way before there was an Internet. In addition to 15 years as an instructional television producer director at UIUC, he has operated Moving Pictures, a video production company since 1982. Roger lives in Champaign with his wife of 33 years and has two grown sons.

Jessica Lewis Watson

In my photography work, it is my intention to capture beauty for the viewer to enjoy. People, places, and things, can be healing to look at if they are presented through an artistic medium. The happy energy flows from the photographer, through the image, to the viewer, and back again, and everywhere in between, thus bringing the world together positively.

Jessica Lewis Watson taught herself photography while illustrating her writing for magazines such as Writer’s Digest, Log Home Living, Diversion, Good Dog!, Health Foods Business, Mushing Magazine, and many more. She holds a BA with Distinction in English from The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and an MA in English Literature from Baylor University.

W. T. Payne

My work will focus principally on the landscape of central Illinois, including architecture and rural settings. A few still life images, also found locally, will be included.

I’ve been enthralled by photography since I was handed a simple 35mm film camera 43 years ago along with two cases of film and was thus anointed the high school year book photographer.

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