Family Weekend, this year held Oct. 3-5, is an annual time for family members to come to campus and
participate in events that are going on. While many sports teams play games and organizations host
special events like the Family Bash or WGM Goat Roast, there’s one class that welcomes the community
and families into their lab to experience the work they’re doing.
Black and White Photography is a 300-level class taught by Professor Keith Barker. Students learn how
to use a variety of film cameras and how to develop the film while also developing their sense of artistic
expression. Black and White Photography has been taught at Asbury since Barker started teaching at
Asbury about 20 years ago.
“When digital photography came along, a lot of colleges and schools just got rid of all their enlargers and
everything, but some chose to keep them,” Barker said. “I was really glad that Asbury was one of those
schools that decided to keep [the class] because it teaches a lot about image-making and patience.”
On Oct. 4, the class hosted its fourth annual Photo Lab Open House. The first open house was in October
2015 to celebrate the opening of the new lab, located on the third floor of Hamann-Ray. After the
event’s success, Barker decided to continue the event.
During this year’s open house, students showed visitors and curious members of the Asbury community
the ins and outs of traditional black and white photography. Multiple stations were set up for visitors to
view and explore, including viewing the different negatives and walking through the darkroom, where
visitors could create their own print.
Senior Kellan Kreft was part of the group of students who helped visitors develop their own prints in the
darkroom. “We put [film] through a bunch of different chemicals and [visitors] can see how that process
works,”Kreft said. “We have a couple stations of enlargers [in the darkroom], so what they do is shine
light onto light-sensitive paper, and that’s how you make prints.”
“It was a great experience,” Barker said. “It was fun to see people who had no idea we were here, but
also people who were familiar with the process and didn’t know it was still taught.”
