Masked Professor Roams the Halls, Arlo Clark-Foos
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Juror Statement
Masked Professor Roams the Halls beautifully combines effective technical qualities like the visually interesting composition and sharp perspective with emotional expression and storytelling. My immediate thought when viewing this photograph is that it wonderfully encapsulates the experiences of the University of Michigan-Dearborn faculty members who rushed to clear their campus offices, adapt to working from home, and re-design their courses to provide the best possible on-line learning experiences for their students when the pandemic began.
There is an aspect of humor and lightheartedness in the image of this professor roaming the halls of CASL in his distinctive mask and hat. The subject is determined to adapt and carry on. However, the striking depiction of the abandoned, and easily recognizable, long CASL hallway, that is known to usually be full of life and teeming with students, triggers strong emotions for any member of the UM-Dearborn community. The photo precisely expresses the loss, sadness, uncertainty and confusion felt by students, faculty and staff after losing the ability to publicly congregate, debate, learn, converse, socialize and celebrate in the ways they knew.
---Laura Cotton, University of Michigan-Dearborn Art Curator and Competition Juror
Artist Statement
The state of Michigan had just issued shelter-at-home orders and the university was already closed. I needed to retrieve a few things from my office and we were allowed one half hour period on a single day to be able to enter the building. Because I was also preparing my syllabi for summer classes, I thought I would joke with my students about how my office hours would normally be in CASL, but because of the shutdown, they would be on Canvas. I went to take a picture of my office door and was struck by how empty and somewhat eerie the hallway appeared. Something about a selfie in a homemade mask in a deserted university hall seemed to capture everything I was going through right then.
---Arlo Clark-Foos
Artist Bio
Arlo Clark-Foos is a professor of psychology and research scientist in the Department of Behavioral Sciences. He studies human memory in the incredible Human Learning and Creativity (HuLC) Laboratory and teaches classes in Cognitive Psychology, Learning and Memory, and Statistics. He became a father, received his PhD from the University of Georgia, and began teaching at UM-Dearborn all in 2009. Other than a photography class in high school and broad experience snapping pictures of beers for his Untappd reviews, he describes himself in all respects as an amateur photographer.
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