{"id":9318,"date":"2020-04-08T16:25:10","date_gmt":"2020-04-08T20:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/?p=9318"},"modified":"2025-12-03T16:31:36","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T21:31:36","slug":"inside-looking-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/inside-looking-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside looking out"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Did you hear the one about the Monmouth photography students who were stuck inside because of a quarantine? They all snapped\u2014photos, that is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
For sophomore computer science major Michelle Chis<\/a>, the Monmouth \u201cM\u201d that hangs in her window serves as a sad reminder that she can’t come to campus these days.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

With classes being taught virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and with much of society practicing social distancing, Specialist Professor of Photography Mark Ludak \u201981 had his students point their cameras and phones out their windows to document what the world looks like to many during this unique moment in time. The students presented their work in compelling digital stories, several of which are linked to below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Windows have long served as a metaphor for separation, Ludak said, and the feeling of isolation is unavoidable in the students\u2019 photos. Their work \u201cgives a good sense of what they are going through right now,\u201d Ludak said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jenna Capitelli, a third-year graphic design major who is minoring in photography, said she was intrigued by the idea of exploring isolation through photography<\/a>, but she also wanted to focus \u201con the idea of hope and productivity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI felt that the use of black and white gave a grim effect to my photos, so I wanted to counteract the somber filter with as much beauty I could find with my limited surroundings,\u201d Capitelli said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo: Jenna Capitelli<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Lexy Karykous, a sophomore graphic design major, was another student who shot in black and white, something she said she normally doesn’t do. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI’m a very colorful person\u2014even my hair is blue,\u201d Karykous said. But a monochrome approach felt \u201cmost appropriate for the mood\u201d of her photos<\/a>, she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One student who shot in color was biology major Mehdi Husaini. \u201cI wanted to highlight the natural light of the room I chose to be my subject and really focus on some unique details, like objects important to my family or used to decorate the space,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Husaini, a senior, said he misses the face-to-face interaction that comes with in-person instruction. \u201cOne of the main reasons I chose Monmouth was because of the strong relationships we build in classroom and extracurricular environments based on individual interactions,\u201d he said. But he commended his professors for continuing to make things meaningful during this shift to virtual learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMonmouth’s faculty have really made an incredible effort to be transparent and engaging, to show that students can benefit from the school’s nurturing learning environment at home as well,\u201d Husaini said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Monmouth <\/em>magazine wants to know how you\u2019re documenting this moment in time. Please consider sharing your photos, artwork, or writings related to how life has changed for you during the COVID-19 pandemic by emailing us at magazine@monmouth.edu<\/a>. Some works might be featured in our summer issue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photography students capture the view from their windows. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":9336,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"image_focus":"","hide_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-currents"],"thumbnail":"\"\"","catString":"Currents","issue":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/60"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9318"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9318\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22101,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9318\/revisions\/22101"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}