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Unveiling Cairo: SIUC students reveal project

By Alan Rogers
The Southern

CAIRO - A project to document Cairo as it exists today may someday help future residents understand their town's rich history.

Photography students at Southern Illinois University Carbondale who spent the past semester photographing scenes of Cairo un-veiled their work Saturday at the Custom House Museum. But the exhibition, "Cairo: The Confluence of Photography, Film and Town," was just the beginning of the project.

Antonio Martinez and Daniel Overturf, professors in the cinema and photography department, assigned 25 students in their ap-plied photography and senior portfolio classes to document Cairo. Beyond the exhibition they hope a website to showcase the pho-tos will allow other students and the public to view the work, while a digital archive will help preserve the history of a town with an uncertain future.

"There are a lot of buildings and aspects of Cairo that are disappearing," Overturf said.

Students captured landmarks such as Magnolia Manor, Riverlore Mansion and the Gem Theater along with the dilapidated buildings along Commercial Avenue.

Overturf said he thinks it is important for students to look "outside the walls" of the university and make connections with local people to produce meaningful work. "The project attempted to engage students and the community, and that's something that means a lot to me. I think this is a positive connection with Cairo and the people of Cairo."

Overturf also credited the individual students, most of whom had never been to Cairo before, with becoming involved in the pro-ject. "You give them an open ended assignment such as this and try to encourage and guide them as best you can, but ultimately the end result is up to them."

Andrea Moore, a senior studying cinema and photography, said she had not been to Cairo before enrolling in the class but felt welcomed by residents right away. "People were honking and waving ... I was like, do they know me?"

Hannah Russell, also a senior in cinema and photography, agreed with Moore. "Everyone was really friendly and willing to let us photograph," she added.

Several student projects have documented Cairo using photo, video or text in recent years, including The Cairo Project, a book published by the School of Journalism in 2007. Overturf said these students' work is a departure from previous projects because the images are intended to be handed over for local historical archives.

"There have been other important projects involved with Cairo in the past through journalism and CP ... what we're doing here is working with community leaders to make images for their own use.