tool name

Saturday, May. 09, 2009

Mike Tharp: 'Transitions' -- UC Merced seniors have grown up

How did you change from when you were 17 or 18 to when you were 21 or 22?

Luckily for UC Merced and our community, local photographer Roger Wyan has helped answer that question for some 100 seniors in the university's first graduating class. He photographed them freshman year, 2005-06, then made their pictures again during their final year.

The result: a vibrant exhibition of those photographs displayed in the Kolligian Library. He also got the students to describe how they themselves thought they had changed during their years on campus. The first-person quotes, as captions, accompany the portraits on the third-floor walls.

You can view them at:

http://www.facebook.com -- search for Roger J. Wyan

Together, they provide a memorable glimpse into how these young people progressed from mumbling, stumbling teenagers into confident young adults.

Shot in stark black and white, first with film, later digitally, the portraits leave us with a graphic sense of wonder at the students' metamorphosis.

Wyan, who attended New York's School of Visual Arts, was a Sun-Star photographer from 1986-96, then spent two years at the Modesto Bee.

His images have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Newsweek, Time, the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle and the Associated Press. He has taught at Merced College and now at UC Merced.

His main influences have been Richard Avedon, a famous fashion photographer for Harper's Bazaar and Vogue, and Brian Lanker, subject of this column last month.

The idea for "Transitions," as he calls the exhibition, was inspired some 20 years ago, he says, when he photographed for the Sun-Star local high school students lobbying for the newest UC campus to come to Merced.

"What struck me was that none of those students would directly benefit from the Merced campus being here," he recalls. "The children of those same students now could come here."

His approach to the project was informal.

He and assistant Scotty Hermanson hung out by the freshmen dorms, the dining commons, the library. They'd ask a passing student if he or she wanted a picture made for the project.

Eventually, some 200 said yes. He shot them at a portable studio right on campus.

"I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to do with it," he admits. "I just knew that this was a totally important opportunity to be in at the ground level of a new time. How often do they build a university?"

As he examined the contact sheets from his Mamiya BR-67 camera, he experienced "a certain unreal or fantasy aspect of photography that comes through working a three-dimensional object into two dimensions. You change the appearance of the person right away."

The initial 200 subjects dwindled through attrition to the 100 or so now gracing the walls. Phase II was shot with a Canon 5D camera.

Soon it became more than a project.

"These pictures are my children," he says. "I know all their names. I've lived with these pictures for the last four years. I feel like I've been living with these kids."

Not only the students changed. So did the shooter.

"They were filled with optimism and hope. The way I think after dealing with these students -- they've taught me to be more positive and optimistic."

Take a look at Justin Duckman, shot Jan. 27, 2006, and then Feb. 10 of this year.

"When I first came to Merced, I was a disheveled, goofy-looking, highly caffeinated wannabe pseudo-intellectual," he writes. Now I'm a disheveled, goofy-looking, highly caffeinated wannabe pseudo-intellectual with a B.A. Success! I think I'm going to miss this place."

He wears a lip piercing in both images, still sports long hair and a beard and now wears glasses.

RUBY GONZALEZ-JIMINEZ, April 26, 2006, and Feb. 10, 2009: "Based on my family's educational background, just receiving a high school diploma is considered an exceptional achievement. If you are a boy, you managed to succeed in life without getting into drugs or going to jail before the age of 18. If you're a girl, you managed to finish school and not get yourself pregnant." From a girl with a Mona Lisa smile, wearing jeans, a blouse and short hair to a young woman with long hair, a ruffled blouse and a big grin.

JHOANA ANDREA ROH LEE, Jan. 27, 2006, and Feb. 10, 2009: "I am not THAT shy anymore. I have learned more about myself -- who I am, what I can do and will do." From a sweatshirt and jeans to wearing a scarf around her neck, and a coat and dress.

BRENDA RAMIREZ, Feb. 14, 2006, and Dec. 10, 2008: "I am the first person in my family to attend a four-year university. Now that I have gone off to college, my family has been greatly impacted. My sister, a senior in high school, is going to attend Fresno State next fall, and my other younger sisters will be attending college in the future as well." As a freshman, she's holding a bouquet of roses, grinning, playing with her hair. Later, she's holding a cell phone, smiling smartly.

ADAM KRAUSE, April 5, 2006, and Dec. 10, 2008: "I hit a few age milestones as well as a few maturity milestones. I turned both 18 and 21. So to ask how I have changed over the past few years would be best summed up by saying, 'I became an adult.'"

From long hair, a sweatshirt and jacket, he has now grown chin whiskers and wears short locks.

SAMUEL FONG, April 5, 2006, and Feb. 10, 2009: "I plan to begin my career by working for an innovative, challenging employer while I continue investing and building my own business."

Spiky hair and a cotton jacket, unsmiling, to spiky hair, a coat and tie and an assured smile.

NATHAN GRAVES, Dec. 1, 2006, and Dec. 11, 2008: "My fourth-grade class from Sheehy Elementary School in Merced cut the ribbon for UC Merced. My current goal is to receive my master's in computer science at UC Merced." From John Lennon glasses and a T-shirt to a suit and tie with trimmed hair.

HADIL SHEDADEH, April 26, 2006, and Feb. 10, 2009: "I am the first generation in my family to attend college. It means a lot to my family because I have started a legacy that my family is proud of and looks up to, and I hope will be passed down for many generations to come." Straight hair three years ago, glasses today.

RUTH XOCHIHUA, April 26, 2006, and Dec. 10, 2008: "Before coming I kept to myself a lot and had trouble opening up, even with my family. Being here in Merced has given me a voice and transformed my introverted ways into outspoken and social ones." Round-faced with unstyled hair to high cheekbones, moon-shaped earrings and a sweater.

Wyan's combination of images and words remind us of what's been happening these past four years northeast of town. Up on that hill, beyond those vernal pools, with cows and horses grazing just off campus, our university -- Merced County's university! -- has been changing, for the better, lives of hundreds of young people.

All our energy, imagination, money, persistence and luck years ago that persuaded the UC system to bestow its first 21st century campus within 15 minutes of Paul's Place clearly has paid off.

And, like the safest-bearing bonds we may have invested in over the years, it will keep paying dividends.

Bobcats -- you rock!

Executive Editor Mike Tharp can be reached at (209) 385-2456 or mtharp@mercedsun-star.com.