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| © Roxanne Turpen |
| A Chuck Close at the Met |
As a double major in photojournalism and studio art at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, junior Roxanne Turpen is making the most of everything the school has to offer. Last summer she received a stipend from the university for an unpaid internship with a magazine in her hometown of Asheville, North Carolina. And this January, with the help of a special UNC scholarship, she’ll be making a multimedia documentary in Ambler, Alaska, a remote Inuit village.
But it’s not all about the money. “I’ve had great instruction from the photojournalism department,” Turpen says. “And my teacher, Pat Davison, tries to create opportunities outside the classroom to become a good photojournalist.” For instance, Turpen was invited to attend an exclusive workshop on North Carolina’s southern coast last spring, where she explored the area’s rich history of piracy.
Turpen likes to travel and, like any good photojournalist, she never leaves home without her camera. On a visit to New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, she was delighted to realize that photography was allowed inside the building. Turpen hung around a giant portrait by painter/photographer Chuck Close to see how people would approach and interact with the piece. In the image below, a woman seems to be challenging it to a staring contest. Her photo of a young girl riding the trolley in New Orleans’ French Quarter, opposite, came from an expedition to help with post-Katrina cleanup efforts.
“Months after the hurricane, New Orleans was still getting back on its feet,” Turpen remembers. “But looking at this young girl’s hair, it seemed that at least she had returned to a life of simple beauty instead of chaos.”
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