The Agency of Ideas – Juried Exhibition

The Agency of Ideas features the work of students and alumni from the Photography Program at ASU’s School of Art in the Herberger Institute of Design and the Arts who are members of the ASU Student Photographers Association (ASUSPA).

The ASUSPA is one of the most active clubs in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts. The club members meet monthly to discuss their photography, host demonstrations, visit studios, or participate in workshops and portfolio reviews. Every year they host three major events; a juried members exhibition, the juror’s lecture and a silent auction.

Each fall the ASUSPA invites a respected professional in the field of photography to jury its members’ exhibition. Professor David Taylor from the University of Arizona selected the works for this exhibition and met with students to review their portfolios. Taylor received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2008 to support his project, Working the Line, in which he documented every border monument between the US and Mexico from El Paso/Juarez to San Diego/Tijuana. Taylor writes, “My travels along the border have been done both alone and in the company of agents. In total, the resulting pictures are intended to offer a view into locations and situations that we generally do not access and portray a highly complex physical, social and political topography during a period of dramatic change.” In 2012 Radius Books published his first book on the project, titled Working the Line. Taylor will give a lecture on campus Wednesday, February 19 at 7:00 p.m. Taylor’s lecture is funded by the club’s annual silent auction held downtown as part of the First Fridays Phoenix ART Walk in April.

Northlight Gallery hosts The Agency of Ideas as part of PhotoTapas, the statewide celebration of photography in February. Northlight Gallery curator and PhotoTapas founding member Liz Allen says, “This is our third year, and the tapas events have grown to include large institutions like the Center for Creative Photography at U of A in Tucson and alternative art spaces like the Ice House in Phoenix.” The annual event showcases the work of Arizona’s finest photography organizations and photographers as well as the philosophies and processes they employ to create exceptional works of art. Visit the PhotoTapas website for a calendar of events around Arizona, phototapas.com. Join ASU students, faculty, alumni, family and friends for The Agency of Ideas reception on Tuesday, January 28 from 6:00 – 8:30 p.m.

Image Birds by Julia Gonzales