Indiana University School of Journalism

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Photo by Steve Raymer

Student Zach Hetrick shows associate professor Jim Kelly, right, some of the features of the new lighting equipment. An auction of alumni photos last fall helped fund the purchase.

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Thanks to alumni, the School of Journalism had the funds to purchase new equipment for the multimedia lab just in time for spring semester.

Just before classes started, associate professor Jim Kelly and multimedia lab director Allen Major brought the new lighting equipment into the multimedia lab inventory. The AlienBees light kits include three studio flash heads and a camera strobe, each with a stand umbrella or light box. The kits also include grid reflectors, triggers, and accessories.

The new accessories may enable photojournalism students to enhance their skills or even go on to award-winning careers, following many alumni who made the funds possible. During last fall’s centennial celebration, the school staged a silent auction. Photojournalism alumni donated prints of their best work or favorite photos, then attendees to the Centennial Weekend in September bid on the photos, with proceeds going to purchase equipment.

“This opportunity enhances the connection between alumni and current students,” said Kelly, who conceived the auction with communications director Beth Moellers. “Students get to see great photographs and through them feel connection to photographers who worked out of Ernie Pyle in the past.”

Donors included John Ahlhauser, IU Professor Emeritus; Pulitzer Prize winner Michel du Cille, BA’85; and even a couple of more recent graduates. Some alumni turned in prints showing pride in Indiana. Joe Young, BA'56, donated a picture of President John F. Kennedy during the late president’s visit to the Indiana State Fair, and Angela Gottschalk, BA'86, donated a photograph of former men’s basketball coach Bobby Knight throwing a chair during a basketball game.

Photo by Jim Kelly

See copies of the photos that were in the auction on the first floor of Ernie Pyle Hall near the IDS and multimedia lab wing.

Copies of all 33 prints are exhibited on the first floor hallway walls in Ernie Pyle Hall.

Student Zach Hetrick has used the brand AlienBees for several years and conducted a tutorial for professor Steve Raymer and Jim Kelly shortly after the equipment arrived. He is a student in Words and Pictures, a pair of classes taught by Kelly and visiting professor Tom French in which two classes combine for one lecture each week.

Kelly said the new lighting equipment enhances the other assets in the multimedia lab to support classes such as this one, as well as students’ individual projects.

“We were overwhelmed with the generosity of so many of our journalism alumni,” Kelly said. “Students today now see more clearly how they can follow in the foot steps of so many of the country’s great photographers.”