Exhibit: Transitions: Portraits of a Decade Long Journey

Through a series of black and white photographic portraits taken 10 years apart, photographer Roger J. Wyan’s Transitions project explores the journey of growth and change during the seminal years from teenager to twenty-something adult of UC Merced’s first students. 220 students, mostly freshmen, were photographed in 2005-06. Ten years later, Wyan rephotographed and interviewed 38 of these original alumni to find out where life has taken them.

 

While the before and after images depict the subjects’ at two distinct periods in their lives, the excerpted interviews in Transitions begin to paint a fascinating picture of what’s happened between those two photos. Transitions is also a historical document of the student body during the early days of the campus and a metaphor for how both UC Merced and its first students are coming of age together. The Transitions project will continue to follow the students’ progress every 10 years to see how they cope with life’s ups and downs. 

 

Roger J. Wyan is a Merced based, award-winning photographer who spent 15 years as a news photographer working in San Francisco and the Central Valley. For more information, please contact photos@rogerwyan.com. Support for Transitions is provided by Chancellor Dorthy Leland, Merced County Arts Council, Carolyn Vara, and the Amerian Association of University Women.

 

Please join us for a reception celebrating Transitions on Thursday, November 16th, from 4:00-6:30pm in KL280.