Joe Trevino: Without Distinction at ASU

I went to my friend Joe Trevino's MFA Thesis Exhibit at ASU last night. The exhibit is titled "Without Distinction".

This was my first venture into the world of academic art. I was expecting more of the typical deadpan photography so prevalent in the MFA crowd, but I was pleasantly surprised. Joe is not your typical MFA candidate. He has thought his project out and expended great amounts of time, energy, and resources. He also is sort of a hybrid, toeing the line between classical straight photography and what they call photography today. He uses an 8x10" view camera and shoots color transparencies, a rarity today. The transparencies are scanned and output to large format inkjet prints. I would guess the larger prints were at least 36x45", large but not so large that you have to walk to see the other end of the image. A nice size to view, for sure. The prints were flush mounted but not matted or framed.

Joe and I like to photograph some of the same things but he tends to concentrate of an even tighter view and distinguish the indistinguishable, that which is without distinction. There is an almost surreal quality to some of his work.

The exhibit was well conceived, well executed and well attended. I wish Joe much success in his future photographic career.