The Making of a Campus-wide Photograph

By Leah Gage '08
Photos by Rachel Cotterman '10

On Friday, September 5, 2008, a multitude of Oberlin College students, staff, and faculty made history when they took part in the all-campus photograph to commemorate the institution's 175th anniversary year. Such an undertaking hadn't been attempted for several decades; a print of an all-campus photo from 1951 hangs in the President's Office. While this year's finished product will be an important document representing Oberlin in 2008, the mere gathering of such a wide cross-section of the campus community in one spot at one time on one rainy afternoon will surely be a proud memory for those who took part. [Editor's note: The processing of the final image is still under way. Stay tuned to the Source for more information on its unveiling.]

Spirits were high and cooperation abounded despite the rain and the seemingly unorganized nature of moving people to their spots. Rather than grumble and push when photographer Kevin Reeves shouted instructions from his perch in the bucket lift, those gathered below craned to listen and follow his directions. Rather than get frustrated and leave when forced to wait and wait in the rain while Kevin moved from the bucket lift to the top of Mudd for a second photograph, everyone stayed and greeted his appearance atop the building with exuberant cheering. The general mood was so obliging and friendly that the ‘Sco staff sprang for a beer and delivered it to President Krislov.

The project was an interesting and heartening exercise in community-building. Organizers had to solve two problems: how to convince thousands of faculty, staff, and students to come to one place at one time, and how to capture them in one photograph. We toyed with the idea of offering incentives: Pizza? Flex points? Beer? In the end, though, we offered no such enticements. It turns out, we didn't need them. Here's a list of what we did need: 

• 1 month to plan
• 2 bucket lifts (1 ready for back-up)
• 1 daredevil photographer willing to go up the bucket lift
• 3 practice runs
• 6 walkie-talkies
• 1 bullhorn
• 2 camera lenses
• 7 facilities staff members
• 87 e-mails (approximately)
• 80 posters
• 160 fliers
• Countless volunteers from various departments and offices
• Willing and patient students, staff, and faculty to photograph 

As the organizer of the shoot, which one Oberlin staff member characterized early in the planning as "a mostly impossible task," I was really moved, as was President Krislov, by the great showing on Friday — bad weather and all. Looking at the final shot, Kevin the photographer estimated that 2,000 people showed up. I send very special thanks to: 

• Kevin Reeves, photographer
• Tony Scott, grounds specialist
• Dave Mull, grounds specialist
• Terry Kish, grounds specialist
• Bill Frawley, facilities maintenance manager
• Keith Watkins, director of facilities operations
• Dennis Greive, grounds services manager
• Tom Piccorelli, assistant vice president, facilities
• Wendy Kacso, job coordinator, printing services
• Leslie Braat, senior associate director of admissions, and the staff of College of Arts and Sciences admissions
• Becky Mosely, assistant director of residential education, and the ResEd staff
• My fellow Office of Communications staffers
• Main Street Oberlin
• Ben Klebanoff '09 and the Student Senate
• and everyone who came out to be photographed last Friday!

Leah Gage '08 is project manager of Oberlin's 175th anniversary activities.