A Miniaturized Space Age
BY CHANNING JOSEPH 

Senior Pauline Shapiro has had a busy semester, putting up three photography shows, serving as a photo editor for the Review and graduating with majors in both visual arts and environmental studies. Shapiro’s latest show, her senior exhibition Remnants of the Frontier, has been displayed in Fisher Hall throughout this week, with a closing reception tonight. Arts Editor Kari Wethington enjoyed lukewarm coffee with Shapiro and got to know the lighter side of the photographer extraordinaire. 

Kari Wethington: This show seems to draw on themes similar to the photography project you did in Vietnam during Winter Term (Expecting America). In both shows you use a close perspective with staged scenes. How does the new show compare with Expecting America?


PS: There are a lot of similarities except that the pieces in the new show were done in a studio, and the others were done in a specific place and that show dealt with that theme a lot — about the experience of being in a specific place. I’ve been working with mini-landscapes since the fall of 1999. This new show is about expanding on small things. It’s about outer-space exploration — the total vastness of it. It’s about proportion — understanding frontiers and boundaries which we can only do to a certain extent. Using a two-inch spaceship and a backdrop as a metaphor for the universe. The show also touches on the idea that our landscape is like a theater — everything is anthropocentric. Everything has become so small-scale so that we can understand it in our own, human terms.

KW: What sorts of things inspired this show?

PS: Since I am also an Environmental Studies major, my shows tend to incorporate those sorts of topics. For example, this show makes reference to the exploration of the American West and the photographs that document that. In certain ways my project tries to use a similar language and similar aesthetic: really sublime, enticing landscapes. Photography has been integral to exploration. The pieces in my show tend to have historical rooting, like the photo [in her new exhibit] of the astronaut on the moon.


KW: How long have you been doing photography?

PS: I got my first camera when I was 13, but it got stolen last year in Ecuador. When I got to Oberlin I came with my portfolio but I couldn’t get into any classes until I was a sophomore. I’ve been working on photography ever since.

KW: What photographers inspire your work?

PS: Right now I’m really looking a lot at Boyd Webb and Sandy Skoglund. Webb uses really simple materials in a studio to create inverted landscapes. You can’t always tell what it is he’s photographing, but it’s not really necessary, either. I like to use un-elaborate materials, similar to Webb. Really simple. 
[We then proceed to look through a book of his work that Shapiro’s Ohio-Linked, and she points out a picture that seems very mundane except that the “fence” in the background is made of eels. I’m confused--KW]

KW: Have you ever thought about doing work with video?

PS: Yeah, I would definitely like to do video sometime. It’s an intimidating art form for me, though, since I’m so focused on the still picture.

KW: Since you’ve been dealing with it for four years, what are your final reflections on the Art Department?


PS: I think the department has gotten so much stronger in the past few years. I’m so impressed with everyone’s work here. People have been getting excited about other people’s work and the standards are being raised all the time. Work just keeps getting better and better.

KW: How do you feel about leaving Oberlin?

PS: I’m excited about leaving, but I’m going to miss the art facilities!

KW: Post-graduation plans?

PS: I’m definitely going to do something with photography, but first I’m going to Mexico for awhile. 

KW: Are you going to carry the torch of the Review and work in journalistic photgraphy?


PS: I would like to work with photo journalism. I like printing, taking pictures. I enjoy everything that goes along with the process of photography. But I definitely separate the two things a lot [photojournalism and her other projects]. The work I did in Vietnam combined those a little bit in the sense that I had to deal with real people outside of a staged, studio situation.
The closing reception for Remnants of the Frontier will take place in Fisher Hall on Friday at 8 p.m. Shapiro will also have work on display in Scotographs, a show of photos of bands that have played the ’Sco. The show is Monday at 9 p.m.