Mary Goodman, Staff Writer

This month, the Snite Museum of Art is hosting an exhibition called “Touching Ground: Finding the American South; 20 x 24 Polaroids.”

The exhibit features works by photographer Jennifer Trausch, who daringly took a mammoth-sized Polaroid camera out from the realm of the studio into the open air to photograph subjects of the rural American South. The camera used to capture these images is unique not only for its size but for its rarity. It is just one of five cameras of its size hand-constructed by Polaroid in the late 1970s for the purpose of creating 20 x 24 inch sized prints. This makes them the largest Polaroid cameras currently in operation, though their days are numbered. The film for use in these cameras has gone out of production, making each image captured by these contraptions incredibly valuable. Many famous artists have used the 20 x 24 studio model including Chuck Close, Julian Schnabel, William Wegman, Mary Ellen Mark and Lucas Samaras.

Notre Dame was fortunate enough to have Trausch  visit campus with her magnificent camera Monday, February 11, 2013.  Snite Director Chuck Loving and Professor Richard Gray arranged for a day-long workshop in which Trausch demonstrated how to use the camera. She collaborated with Notre Dame photography students to capture images designed and selected specifically for the occasion.

I confess that I am not a photography student. I am not even majoring in design, art history or studio art. I am a history and English major with a great appreciation for art, probably only amplified by my complete lack of artistic talent. It is for this reason that I was intrigued by the 20 x 24 Polaroid Workshop at the Snite and decided to make a quick visit between classes in order to see this great camera in action. I did not expect, however, to encounter one of Notre Dame’s living legends.

The subjects of the photography students’ commissioned workshop prints varied widely. Some were ethereal portraits, while others were more dynamic. One particular image was undoubtedly simplistic in conception, yet its subject’s weight made it powerfully appropriate to any viewer even vaguely associated with Notre Dame – a portrait of Father Theodore Hesburgh, CSC. This was the image being composed when I stumbled into the Snite Monday afternoon: A large group of professors, students and art enthusiasts crowded around a comically boxy wooden camera placed before the subject himself. I myself have never had the fortune of meeting Fr. Hesburgh, but even just encountering him here, on a random February day in the Snite, was a very rewarding experience. To see our former university president still so actively engaged with campus life was amazing to witness in person. I could not but think how fitting it was to use such rare film stock to capture such a unique individual.

After the image was captured, the crowd eagerly gathered around to see the film develop. The camera includes a pair of rollers in the back that enables the film to be processed instantly. The film negative and paper are processed together with a chemical that allows the image to transfer from the negative to the white receiving paper. Then the layers of the film are peeled back to reveal the image. As the portrait was revealed to the surrounding crowd, people gasped and cheered in excitement and wonder. In watching the photo of such an important figure of Notre Dame develop, the crowd of adults seemed filled with the same giddy anticipation that likely accompanied the Polaroid photos of their youth.

Maybe that is why I love art: its elusive ability to inspire awe and excitement. Photography captures but a moment in time. And what a great moment to capture our respected and blessed Fr. Hesburgh, especially on such rare film stock as the 20 x 24. It was truly a once in a lifetime event, a moment captured as part of my Notre Dame experience.

Mary Goodman is a senior double majoring in English and history. Contact her at mgoodma2@nd.edu.