Tag: photography

Ryann Cooley

Post author By Houghton STAR
Post date October 4, 2024

By Aivery Shuck ('26)

Ryann Cooley has been serving the Houghton community as a professor for 11 years now, but has spent the majority of his life doing photography work. He provides his knowledge and energy in the art department, teaching digital media and photography.

Before Prof. Cooley came to Houghton, he began his journey as a military and business man who dreamed of traveling the world taking photos. To pursue this dream, Prof. Cooley went to college in Santa Barbara, Calif. and then started his career in New York City.

Soon after, Cooley was given an amazing opportunity to follow a missions program to Mexico—escaping the cold of New York—where he photographically documented the missionaries’ work. This experience opened up more opportunities for Prof. Cooley to take photos in a multitude of other countries, and he was able to pursue his dream of traveling the world for many years. Although traveling was thrilling, Prof. Cooley decided to settle back in New York City with his family. There, his advertising career took off as he began photographing for many different companies and magazines. After finding advertising less fulfilling than his past photography work, Prof. Cooley turned to teaching, and ended up at Houghton.

While deciding on which college to teach at, Prof. Cooley said that Houghton was the only school with students who “grilled him with questions for the full hour and a half.” He followed this by saying that Houghton was also the only school that got him thinking, “Holy cow… this is a lot of fun!”

Current art major Rachael Smith (‘26) said, “Professor Cooley’s classes are consistently enjoyable and full of energy. His witty humor and interactive approach makes every class fun. He takes time to involve everyone in discussions, and his thoughtful feedback inspires personal growth and development.”

Prof. Cooley fosters meaningful and close relationships with his students, and his students appreciate all of the hard work he does connecting with them on a personal level.

Alumna Rachel Smith (Class of ‘22) said that Cooley “supported us outside and inside the classroom as a friend and a professor … we always felt so seen and so valued as one of his art majors.”

His classes are open to people who have experience taking photos, as well beginners. Chesnie Waddingham (‘26), who is taking Prof. Cooley’s intro to digital photography class, stated that “even before I knew him, I met him, just because his reputation precedes him of being an amazing professor and amazing person. … He finds a good balance of encouraging us and reminding us that there is grace in trial and error when perfecting your craft.”

Prof. Cooley has had an adventurous career thus far, but it’s far from over. One of the greatest adventures in life is being a teacher, and having the gifts to cultivate knowledge in students. Prof. Cooley is excited to continue building up the art program at Houghton.

For the first time this spring, Prof. Cooley will be offering a class that prepares students for a photography trip to Puerto Rico during the Spring 2025 semester’s March Break. If you love photography and traveling, join Prof. Cooley on this 10 day adventure! There are limited spots, so start planning soon! ★

Tags digital media, Houghton, Houghton University, photography, ryann cooley, university

Arts Stories In Focus

FEATURE: Ortlip Gallery Features Husband-and-Wife Artist Duo

Post author By Rylee Archambault
Post date December 3, 2021

By Rylee Archambault (’23)

The Ortlip Art Gallery at Houghton is now presenting ‘Side by Side’, a series by Amanda Parry Oglesbee and Brian Oglesbee, an artistic husband and wife duo. She’s a painter and he is a photographer; can I make it any more obvious? The Oglesbees met at the Art Institute of Chicago in the 1970s and have been “side by side” ever since.

This is a show that needs to be seen in-person. While Brian Oglesbee’s photographs look like they are photoshopped, there is no post-production done on his work. They are all exactly what the camera sees. Along with this, Amanda Parry Oglesbee displays her latest series, titled ‘Beings,’ which consists of large paintings of trees in an editorial style.

Her artist statement:

“I am moved by the beauty and courage of all things that grow on earth. As I paint trees and flowers they become portraits of beings compelled to grow and survive. Some of my paintings are made directly observing nature. My work is sometimes influenced by historical art and other times built entirely from my imagination allowing the piece to grow organically with an equal combination of intent and acceptance. Most of my paintings are a combination of these different approaches.”

His artist statement:

“My photographs are very ‘straight;’ in other words, the camera simply records what was in front of it. What is seen in the print is what was presented to the camera; (with the exception of one of the ‘Tangles,’ which features stitched exposures, and the early multi-media works) there is no subsequent manipulation of the image after the initial single exposure.”

This exhibition will be on display through December 18th. A reception for the artists will be held on Friday, December 3rd, from 5:30pm to 7:00pm, at the Ortlip Gallery.

Tags art, artists, ortlip gallery, painting, photography

Artist of the Week

Artist of the Week: Tess Shilke

Post author By Houghton STAR
Post date November 24, 2020

Tags art, Artist of the Week, photography

Artist of the Week

Artist of the Week: Sophie Tierney

Post author By Houghton STAR
Post date November 4, 2020

Tags aotw, art, Artist of the Week, photography

Stories In Focus

Senior Art Exhibition 2016

Post author By Carina Martin
Post date April 21, 2016

On Monday April 18th, the Houghton Art Department opened its annual Student Art Exhibition. At this year’s show, twelve graduating students working toward a BFA in studio art will present work across a range of materials, including drawing, ceramics and sculpture, photography, painting, and mixed media.

“As you get closer to a show, students realize how fast that deadline is approaching,” Cooley said with a chuckle. “But it’s a great learning experience to be put in that situation,” he added, because it forces students to grapple with the realities of the professional world.

artshow2 In fact, the Senior Exhibition aims to simulate the practical realities of professional work as fully as possible. “We don’t guarantee anybody to be in the show,” Cooley explained. “You have to present your work, and it has to be approved, just like you would in an actual gallery.” In order to coordinate a successful exhibition, students must consider how each element of the viewing experience coordinates with all the others.

Participating students are also responsible for the practical aspects of the show—such as setting up the gallery and organizing refreshments for the artists’ reception—which provides a glimpse into a visual artist’s day-to-day work. “They all learn in a collaborative effort to pull all those details together,” said Cooley. “It’s a very real-world experience.”

Organizing such a large show with such a diversity of styles can be an exercise in flexibility, but Cooley is confident in the students’ ability to put out their best work. “Somehow every year, we miraculously pull it off,” he mused. “This year’s not any exception—the work is coming out really strong.” The artists have flourished under what Cooley refers to as the “refining pressure” of a hard deadline. “The students are realizing what they’re really capable of doing. As they head into it, it’s this daunting scary thing. But then they realize what they’re really capable of.”

All this work gives students the opportunity to welcome hard-earned encouragement and recognition from the Houghton community. “Exhibiting seniors are working across a broad range of processes to each create a body of work that articulates their voice as an artist in today’s visual culture,” commented Professor Alicia Taylor, director of the Ortlip Gallery. “The senior exhibition is an opportunity for the community to recognize the achievements of our students in the conclusion of their study here as they move forward to engage in communities that reach out beyond our walls.”

Is it difficult to cultivate a show that draws on so many different media and artistic styles? Challenging, perhaps, but rewarding as well. “It’s really interesting to see some of the overlaps, and see where the work speaks to each other. You see some of the influence of the professors, but I intentionally allow them to think in their own ways, to find their own voice and style. They all do have a uniqueness to their work.”

And this diversity makes for a viewing experience that’s never dull. “It makes a very interesting show. It expands the conversation, it gets fun,” Cooley said. With a grin, he added: “You’re certainly not going to get bored.”

The Senior Student Art Exhibition opens at theGallery on Monday, April 18th. An artists’ reception will be held in the CFA atrium at 7 P.M. on Friday, April 22nd, with refreshments to follow.

Tags Art exibition, ceramics, drawing, mixed media, photography, ryann cooley

News

Annual Student Juried Art Exhibition Opens Saturday

Post author By Ben Layman
Post date March 22, 2014

This Saturday, March 22, marks the opening of the 25th annual Student Juried Art Exhibition. Submissions were accepted from all Houghton students, provided that the works submitted had been completed within the last year. It will feature a wide variety of artwork including ceramics, printmaking, drawing, book art, and other forms of media, totaling nearly eighty pieces. The expansive selection of work makes it ideal as a sampling of what the art community at Houghton has to offer. “It’s a show we look forward to every year, both for the celebration of creativity among our student body and the recognition of the visual art, design and media programs,” said Jillian Sokso, chair for the department of art and director of the Ortlip Gallery.

Each student can submit up to five pieces for the show, though only three are placed in the exhibition. This year, all submissions were subject to a jury process by artist Ian McMahon. McMahon is the co-founder and co-director of The Belfry, an artist-run exhibition venue located in Hornell, and his work in sculpture has been shown both nationally and internationally. Many Houghton art majors are already familiar with him and his work, having spoken previously during a Fine Arts Seminar and given critiques.

Amanda Irwin, assistant to the gallery and a junior Art and English double major, says that the great majority of work to be done leading up to the opening had concerned dismantling the previous gallery exhibition. In contrast with a visiting artist who would have specific parameters on how their work was to be displayed, this show requires a certain amount of responsibility and organizational skills from the gallery assistants and Sokso. “Jillian will go and look at all of our pieces and arrange them… and us as the gallery assistants go and hang everything and do the technical aspect of it. Later on we also do lighting ourselves.” Irwin assists alongside Alex Hood, Jordan Smith, and Lydia Wilson.

A number of awards will be designated during the event, also determined by McMahon. These awards include those such as the Ben Moss Award (3rd Place), the Alumni Award (2nd Place), and the Paul Maxwell Memorial Award (1st Place), along with the Ortlip Award for Best in Show, with cash prizes for each. Additionally, there will be a personal selection bid for two pieces of artwork by the College President and the First Gentleman, respectively.

The student show provides an opportunity for the college to acquire Houghton student artwork to display on campus. “We usually have a large turnout for this show,” says Irwin, “just because it’s student work, so it’s really fun to see if you got in and what they got or if your friends did, that sort of thing.” Jillian Sokso also comments on the contemporary nature of many of the pieces. “The Student Juried Exhibition is an exciting showcase of what is happening in the visual arts,” she says. The entire exhibition will be available for viewing in the gallery until April 18th.

Tags ian mcmahon, ortlip ceramics, photography, student juried show, the belfry

Arts

Houghton Hires New Photography Professor

Post author By Holly Chaisson
Post date September 21, 2013

Houghton welcomed 11 new faculty members this year, including new photography and digital imaging professor, Ryann Cooley. Professor Cooley comes to Houghton after several stints as a photographer in both the advertising and missionary fields.

However, before pursuing his career in photography, Cooley worked as a financial planner. In the late 80s, on what is known as Black Monday, the stock market crashed and Cooley marks this as the start of a series of events that happened in his life where he said God started speaking in his life, “convicting [him] of [his] motivations for being in the financial sector.” After the revelation that money was his “primary motivation”, Cooley said that he realized he could “only serve one master”, something which “shook [his] world.”

Eventually Cooley stepped away from the financial sector and said that this time in his life was one without “a sense of direction, motivation, or drive.” The next six months were spent in prayer, Cooley said, almost “like [he] was in a monastery.” This intense period of prayer ultimately left Cooley with a dream in which he was “a photographer for missionaries, traveling the world to document various missions” as a graduate of Brooks Institute, a school he heard about in high school.

Initially following his dream, Cooley contacted Brooks Institute and learned that both the tuition and admission requirements were out of reach. Dismayed, he began to look elsewhere. Yet a month later he received a call from Brooks offering him admission and scholarship. After being accepted into the undergraduate program at the Brooks Institute under the Alumni Scholarship Program, Cooley immediately enrolled and successfully completed his degree. Following his graduation, he began to contact missionaries to see if he could come along on their missions and take photos. When Cooley was denied these opportunities, he said his next step was to “go and make a name for [himself] as a photographer,” so he moved to New York City, “the hub of photography”, in order to do so.

In NYC, Cooley worked as an assistant photographer for several years with his first client being Levi’s. His work in advertising gradually grew and was followed by an opportunity to shoot for a Presbyterian mission organization while they were on a mission in Mexico for three weeks, an opportunity Cooley said he “jumped at.” His work with missions organizations continued with groups like the Arab World Missions in Morocco and the International Bible Society based in Colorado Springs.

Following the birth of his son and the start of his family, Cooley said that his career direction changed. “My dream had come true,” he said, and it was now time to return to the advertising world, which Cooley said he sees as “much [of] a mission field” as those he had worked in before, calling advertising a “foreign country itself.” In 2012, after a reasonable stint in advertising, Cooley pursued and received his MFA in Photography, Video, and Related Media from the School of Visual Arts in NYC so that he could teach.

Before coming to Houghton, Cooley looked into and interviewed at several schools, but he said it was the students at Houghton that stood out to him because they were “easy to talk to and articulate;” students he wanted the chance to work with. After receiving and accepting the position at Houghton, Cooley and his family moved from New York City to Angelica, and he said that the transition was big, but that he was “ready to move on from the city.”

When asked what he hopes to bring to Houghton, Cooley said that he wants to bring an “NYC edge,” and introduce more conceptual art that will help in his goal of “pushing the boundaries of what people expect of art.” Additionally, he would like to see the number of photography classes grow to include more advanced classes that offer students the opportunity to specialize in areas such as lighting. Also important to Cooley is the relationship between the music and art departments. He hopes to help bring the departments together in combined performances, and said that there may be a collaboration with Professor Brian Johnson in the works for this year’s Christmas Prism.

Tags brooks institute, financial sector, fine art, houghton college, photography, professor, ryann cooley

News

New Faculty Hired

Post author By Abigail Erlanson
Post date September 14, 2013

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A week into the fall semester, new faces are everywhere—including amongst faculty. Departments across campus had hired or wanted to hire new professors this year, some departments to address a growing shortage of faculty members and others to fill the gaps left by recent retirees.

The education department filled four positions this year for a total of seven full-time faculty members. Last fall, the department had only three. Dr. Cathy Freytag, chair of the department, said all faculty members hired this year were “replacement hires that were necessary for [the department] to continue to deliver [the] current program.” The education department, she added, was “given priority with hires due to the significant faculty shortfall” and the need to show the Teacher Education Accreditation Council that the department is “fully staffed with highly-qualified faculty members.”

The chemistry department aimed to hire two more full-time faculty members, despite having not yet begun an official search. Dr. Karen Torraca, chair of the chemistry department, says that with just four full- and part-time professors the department is “still not offering [a] full range of courses” this year. She adds that the department “would like both new hires to be interdisciplinary with Biology” and for one professor to focus on courses for the growing biochemistry major.

Two faculty members joined the School of Music this academic year. During the past two years, they and one other faculty member filled positions left by three retiring professors. Dean Stephan Plate of the School of Music noted this is an “exciting time in the School of Music” as the new professors and “everyone who’s always been here” share their passions and their talents.

Tags chemistry, houghton college, new faculty, photography, school of music