Short course students show their best work

“Looking at scenes and people from behind a lens allows me to see beauty differently,” says Elizabeth Oakes, one of four amateur photographers whose work will be shown at the NMU Bird Street Gallery in Central.

Using photography as a medium to create awareness of how  the art form can be used to communicate in a different way, the Nelson Mandela University photography department will be exhibiting photographs by students who have completed short courses at the institution.

For the first time four of the seven students enrolled for the six-week courses will show their work.

Associate lecturer in the school of performing and visual arts, and organiser of the exhibition, Roxane van Wyk, said one of the aims of the short courses was to encourage students to focus on the equipment they had and what they had access to.

“These are not full-time registered students.

"They are working professionals with an interest in photography and who want to hone their skills,” Van Wyk said.

There is a basic and advanced course and students are exposed to both the theory and practical aspects of photography, learning  everything from formats to design and applications, controls and operation.

Part of the course to encourages students to create work in different genres.

These include life, architecture, landscapes, night scenes and studio work.

“The courses encourage amateur photographers to take photography further and use the art form to communicate in a different way,” Van Wyk said.

Oakes, a counselling psychologist by profession and a student success coach at NMU, said she had always been interested in taking up photography but did not previously have the time to pursue it.

“When I saw the short courses being advertised I thought ‘this is the right time’,” Oakes said.

Looking at scenes and people from behind the lens allowed Oakes to view  beauty differently, she said.

“The natural world is very beautiful [but] I also see people differently from behind the lens, in their natural state, when you can see their soul,” Oakes said.

The exhibition opens on Monday at 6pm and will run until March 18, weekdays, between 9am and 3pm.