Brian Chilson's Lecture, "Chasing the Light"
Former Webster University graduate, Brian Chilson, held a lecture on September 27, 2013 titled, "Chasing the Light." Chilson began with a brief personal background. He graduated from Webster University in 1987 with a degree in print journalism. He had always wanted to pursue photography, so he traveled around the country for a while before settling in Little Rock, Arkansas. He is currently the sole photographer for the Arkansas Times and sometimes picks up other jobs from other newspapers. Although I have no desire to pursue photography, I admire Chilson's dedication. He said that he's nearly always busy and holds immense responsibility, but because he's passionate about photography, the workload doesn't bother him.
After his introduction, Chilson's lecture consisted of about one hundred photographs in iPhoto, which were also featured in the gallery, with some background information and memories associated with each of them. This part of the lecture kept my attention at first, but later bored me, and it didn't seem like Chilson planned it very well. He imported the photos at the beginning with no real structure, and there were even some duplicates near the end of the slideshow. Photos of athletes and musicians were mixed with President Clinton and other local events. Despite the disorganized structure, two types of photos stuck to my mind as Chilson talked about his job preferences. He prefers taking photographs of sports and music as opposed to people simply standing or posing because taking a good shot of someone playing football is a challenge: he has to time his shot perfectly to get a usable photo. For one event, he took photos at a boxing match, and he researched how to get a good shot on the Internet before going. Thanks to his research, he got a photograph of the moment when one boxer's glove was about to hit the other person. About a third of his photographs were of sports, mainly football, and musicians playing at concerts.
Other events are extremely boring to Chilson because he has to stand unmoving in one spot, one such picture being one of President Clinton. Although he got a good shot of Clinton shaking hands with someone, Chilson recalls having to stand in one spot throughout Clinton's speech and having nothing else to do. Although he enjoyed taking photographs of local events in Arkansas, Chilson admits the pictures, which reflected everyday life and accomplishments, were not as fun to capture.
One photograph in particular had a specific story behind it. Chilson had to take photos on an article about Elizabeth Eckford, one of the Little Rock Nine students being integrated in Little Rock High School in 1957. He called an old contact of his to help plan an appointment with Eckford. Then, he spent some time with Eckford, learning bits about her past as they took photographs for the newspaper.
His photographs of sports and musicians certainly were the more visually appealing and energized ones of his collection, and they are definitely worth seeing. While Chilson's voice remained monotone and his background information repetitive, I enjoyed the lecture and his photographs. His dedication to photography is truly admirable, and the amount of effort he puts into his work is reflected in his stunning photos.
