I was reading a popular blog when I happened upon a post about a photo project that involved the Visual Studies Workshop. I wondered "Do they mean OUR Visual Studies Workshop?"

Sure enough, the project Every Chair at the Visual Studies Workshop by Luke Strosnider involved the chairs at Rochester's own Visual Studies Workshop.

During his time at the Master of Fine Arts program at the VSW Luke photographed every single chair in the school.

I thought the project was really interesting I contacted Luke and asked him a few questions...

What led you to work with photography?

Luke - My interest in photography started at an early age. My grandmother was
a prolific amateur snapshooter, and she was always letting me fiddle
with a camera and make my own pictures. Later, when I got into
college, I took intro black and white courses and have been working
with (and thinking about) images ever since. I think I realized at
some point that images could expressed things differently than words,
and I became hooked on exploring how that worked.

How did you get the idea to photograph all the chairs at the VSW?

Luke - At the time I came up with the idea, I was thinking a lot about
photography's relationship with time and experience. I was also
intrigued by it's ability to give personalities to inanimate objects.
Photographing the chairs began as a way to combine all of these
powerful aspects of the medium: the photos of the chairs revealed
their individual quirks, and reflected the history of the Visual
Studies Workshop and the people who've kept it going all these years.

What is some of the feedback you got to the chair project?

Luke - The chairs elicit alot of emotional responses. People will look at
certain ones and giggle; others will inspire an "awwww, isn't that one
cute" reaction. So in that way, the project works: people are
assigning these pieces of plastic, wood, and metal "personalities" and
almost empathizing with them. I've also managed to get a few former
VSW'ers to share their memories about their time at the school and the
chairs they remember.

How important is sharing photographs to you?

Luke - Well, sharing photos certainly beats hoarding them in a box (or on a
hard drive). After I finished shooting all of the chairs, I let it sit
for a while, not really sure how to proceed. I wanted to (and still
plan to) publish them as a book. But one day it just came to me - why
not create a Flickr site where former / current VSW'ers can access
them? They were all shot rather simply with a digital camera, so why
not share them simply, too? Sharing them has led to lots of feedback,
getting in touch with old friends and making new ones, and has
provided some very cool opportunities.

Check out all 521 of the chair photos here.

I love getting Photojojo newsletters in my email. I feel we have photo kindred spirits over there. I think they are as crazy about photography as we are.

With this in mind Kodak and Photojojo embarked on a photo project swap! Right now we are featuring Photojojo's Wine Glass Photo Frames in our Kodak Tips and Projects Center.

Start with candid shots of your friends...

... add a little crafty know-how...

... and you end up with a totally unique photo display.

Check out the Wine Glass Photo Frames project page for more detailed instructions.

In exchange Photojojo featured our Magnetic Photo Bookmark project in their newsletter. You can see it here on their site.

To see more cool photo ideas from Photojojo sign up for their email newsletter. Good stuff!

Whether you are a NASCAR fan or movie fan, tune in to the NASCAR race at Chicagoland Speedway at 8EST Saturday. Kodak and Universal Studios paired up to promote the next Mummy movie, "The Mummy - Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" by painting the No. 12 Dodge with a Mummy paint scheme. Brendan Fraser will be at the track and will start the race and ride in the pace car. Even Ryan Newman's firesuit and helmet are Mummy inspired! It's gonna be so cool! We will have pictures from the race here next week.