University Press (Beaumont, Tex.), Vol. 73, No. 48, Ed. 1 Wednesday, April 23, 1997 Page: 2 of 6
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University Press • Wednesday, April 23,1997 • Page 2
Nakagawa —
Continued from page 1
“I would tell them ‘the roads are
wide, and there are lots of billboards.’
That was the first thing I noticed when I
got here was that there were so many
billboards,” Nakagawa said.
Nakagawa attended the University of
Houston, where he was introduced to
the digital photography.
“When I was just doing straight pho-
tography, I would have to have a series
of work to say what I wanted to say.
With the computer, I could paint and
construct to signify. Computer manipu-
lation allows me to show my concern. I
am not saying that you can not do that
with straight photography but, if I just
present a billboard with a blank screen,
then it would be up in the viewer’s face.
I am intentionally making the viewer
recede from my concern. I am creating
space between my concern and the view-
er, and that space has to have certain
connotations,” Nakagawa said.
Nakagawa feels that digital photography
is a transformation from conventional
photography.
“It is a great time for artists to use
these tools to make images with the
computer. I am using this technology as
a tool. Historically, art was the artist’s
point of
view, and the
viewer would
look at it and
either get it
or not, but
now artists
use the com-
puter as a
total studio
because it is
so fluent.
Artists have
the capabili-
ties with the
computer to
incorporate
more choices
of what they
want to do,”
Nakagawa
said. “I am
using the believability of photographic
reality, because I am printing it and
making a negative.”
The exhibit at AMSET, called “The
American Dream,” will include prints
done by Nakagawa from 1992 until 1993.
The subject matter of this series is bill-
boards and old drive-in theatres in small
towns.
“I got interested in drive-in theatres
because of their decay. I was not think-
ing about what images I could put in the
screens when I took the photographs,”
Nakagawa said. “It was after I got intro-
duced to digital photography when I
.thought I could use the blank screens of
abandoned drive-in theatres as a canvas.
This is where I get my Japanese influ-
ence. Something old and decaying is
beautiful. There is no nostalgia to my
work, it is about something run down
and its beauty and history. There is
something poetic about something being
old and decaying as a straight image. It is
phenomenal going to a small town that is
run down and seeing a huge screen of a
drive-in theatre right in the middle of it.
It is almost archeological.”
The series of images that Nakagawa
will present are large 27”x 40” prints.
“I studied how people look at my
work. Almost everyone will walk right
up to them and look at the screen. Then
they step back and look at it again and
maybe find something they missed look-
ing at it the first time. Sometimes, I will
intentionally place something in my
work that is small so the viewer will real-
ly have to look to find it. If the pieces
were not as big, then people would not
be able to find these small details,”
Nakagawa said.
“When people look at my work, I
want them to raise questions. I just want
to raise questions. I am not saying this is
the right or wrong way, I am simply sug-
gesting my point of view and my opin-
ion. At a certain point, I am guiding the
viewer to see certain ways, using color or
whatever other technique I know, but
the main goal is to make the viewer raise
his own questions,” Nakagawa said.
In this show, there is a shift in
Nakagawa’s work. In some of his previ-
ous pieces, Nakagawa used signs with
loaded images to convey his message.
“I used Martin Luther King, Jr. and
the Ku Klux Klan, which are pretty
loaded American images,’’Nakagawa
said. “Now, I am making a shift to more
ambiguous images that suggest the
American Dream.”
“People want to categorize me as a
digital photographer, but after this
series, I may just go back to convention-
al photography or start making sculpture
or even start on a painting. If an idea has
that necessity to use other medium,
then, yes, I will use another medium. I
am not just stuck in photography,”
Nakagawa said.
“Digital photography is just one
medium that I can use that came out of
necessity. It was easy for me to present
my concern with these images to raise
questions. First, I raise questions to
myself, but I want the viewer to raise
questions, too. If I don’t raise questions
when I look at my work, then how can
the viewer? I choose to use color
because it is significant. Red means
warning, and, if I use that color in my
work, it is intentional,” Nakagawa said.
“Some people have a problem with
my work because they say it is not
Japanese. They say it does not look
Japanese. I get that all the time. So I
ask them, ‘What is Japanese art sup-
posed to look like?’ Is it supposed to be
on rice paper? If I am going to use that
kind of material, then, yes, I will raise
questions about materials plus image.
Maybe I would have a superman on rice
paper.”
One important influence on
Nakagawa’s work is his uncle Takayuki
Ojwa. He is the first Japanese fine arts
photographer to be a part of the perma-
nent collection at Eastman Kodak.
Nakagawa teaches fundamental
design, computers in art and photogra-
phy.
“In my classes, I like to stress the
importance of getting out and looking
at other artists’ current work,” he said.
“I feel that what I teach can sometimes
become alien to students until they get
out and see this work I am talking
about. It is obvious what I am interest-
ed in. I want to know what the student
is interested in.”
Banquet-
Continued from page 1
Shaw-
Continued from page 1
Toast to Leadership also gives out one
scholarship, in memory of the late Mary
Hahn Gray, to one senior high school stu-
dent. Candidates are selected according to
> GPA, rank in class, involvement in organiza-
tions and service to the community and their
school. Elizabeth Erin Johnson, from West
Brook Senior High School, was the winner of
this scholarship.
Legislator of the year was given to senior
Sherry Penick. This is given to someone who
is a part of SGA who has contributed much
to the organization and kept things going.
Other awards, which were given to several
people at once, were for beach clean-up;
homecoming float committee; Outstanding
Redbird for those in the Senate; and Cardinal
Court of Honor, awarded to students for
their continual support for Lamar.
The speaker for the evening was Laurie
Kiker, senior vice president of First Bank and
Trust. Kiker is a Lamar graduate and is also
president-elect of the Cardinal Club.
Adriana Esparza, chair of Toast to
Leadership, gave the toasts to the officers.
“We do a toast to the past, present and
future,” Dinkins said. “That honors those
leaders who have succeeded in the past and
kind of pumps up incoming officers to create
a future just as successful.”
university and
younger students to
realize they have a
responsibility to con-
tinue it,” Griffith-
Kelso said. “We want
to recognize Dean
Shaw because she was
instrumental in their
involvement on cam-
pus.”
Finalists for the
Bess Gentry Award
include Tonya
Andris, Shelilah
Dean, Latisha
Downs, Kimberly
Green, Shaye
McDonald, Tiffany
Nash and Randa Lee
Tooke.
Finalists for the C.
Robert Kemble
Award include Lance
Broussard, Brandon
Geis, Edward Giles
and Quincy Martin.
For ticket reserva-
tions, call 880-8441 by
tomorrow morning.
Correction
The April 16 issue of the University
Press stated that Don Burnett was
rumored to have rigged the election “so
that a black man can’t win.” In reality,
Scot Doyen was rumored to have rigged
the election.
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2nd-Alpha Chi Omega
Bulletin Board Contest
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2nd-Panhellenic/IFC
Thank you for participating.
Winners can pick up
cash prizes in
212 Setzer Student Center.
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Pearson, Allen. University Press (Beaumont, Tex.), Vol. 73, No. 48, Ed. 1 Wednesday, April 23, 1997, newspaper, April 23, 1997; Beaumont, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth500692/m1/2/?q=Lamar+University: accessed June 6, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Lamar University.