Angela Guarini, the Queens College Photography Club President, has been working to preserve and highlight the photography prints in Powdermaker Hall.
When Powdermaker Hall was being renovated in the 2000s, QC commissioned photographs of Queens from two artists, Frank Gohlke and Joel Sternfeld. These photographs were put in Powdermaker Hall to highlight the community and beautiful landscape that QC is a part of.
Guarani, who has been working on the project for a year, said, “It’s an appreciation of things, places and points of connection around Queens through an artistic lens. If you want to be more involved in Queens and you want to look at the beauty of it, then knowing where these pictures were taken and having the information there is important.” The photography prints in Powdermaker Hall serve as a reminder of the beautiful and strong culture that surrounds QC.
Students can look at the artwork and appreciate the area they live, work and go to school in. Furthermore, being able to identify where each picture has been taken provides the opportunity to visit the area and experience the culture. Students will feel more connected to the community and its members through interaction with the photography prints. “It is about everyone in the sense that it is about this place that they share,” Guarini said.
Guarini completed the project with the help of Kate Pechenkina, Dean of Social Sciences, and her secretaries. Guarini organized the missing information associated with the photography prints and created a spreadsheet to identify, format and install the missing information in Powdermaker Hall.
Guarini was able to get permission from QC’s Buildings & Grounds to start this project because of Dean Pechenkina. She helped tremendously in starting the project as well as ordering the materials needed to label and install the missing information.
Guarini replaced the missing informational labels of over 50 photography prints in Powdermaker Hall. In the Spring 2024 semester, she noticed a large number of missing informational labels on the photography prints. Throughout the year she was able to track down the titles and information associated with the artists through a variety of sources. From first identifying what was missing, to taking measurements and cutting out labels, Guarini estimated the project took a total of 30 hours.
Guarini credits her passion and love of photography for taking action. Her appreciation for art goes beyond the project; it represents her dedication to preserving and highlighting Queens culture.
Regarding the future of this project, Guarini hopes to involve the Photography Club by going to the locations shown in the photography prints and taking new photographs of them. These photos would be framed and labeled in the same format as the original print in a smaller version. This project would show how each location has changed or stayed the same throughout time. Photography exists as a “literal kind of medium, and that it takes what is there and makes it into an artpiece,” Guarini said.
Art crosses the boundary between the past and the present, it serves a bridge to connect people. The continuation of this project will show further appreciation toward the photography prints and the culture they represent.