Library of Congress collects photographic work of W&M professor – W&M Information

The Library of Congress is the biggest library on the earth, and its everlasting assortment is among the world’s preeminent repositories of books, artwork and – particularly germane on this case  – images that its curators decide to be consultant of the American expertise. 

That’s why Eliot Dudik, affiliate educating professor of images in William & Mary’s Department of Art & Art History, is honored to have his work turn into a part of the library’s everlasting assortment. Earlier this 12 months, the library bought 20 of his images – 10 from a sequence titled “Broken Land” and 10 from the sequence “Paradise Road.”

“It’s an achievement of a lifetime, one that has been in the works for years, and one I am immensely proud of,” mentioned Dudik, who has been educating at W&M since 2014. “It is quite an honor for our nation’s institutions to see value in your work as a record of our collective consciousness and history.”

Dudik’s images have already been delivered to the library in Washington, D.C. That was no small feat as a result of lots of them are massive – panoramic pictures taken with a large-format view digicam wherein the lens varieties an inverted picture on a ground-glass display. The picture is considered, composed and centered earlier than the glass display is changed with movie to show precisely the identical composition as seen on the display. 

“This is a massively significant accomplishment,” mentioned Elizabeth Mead, Dudik’s colleague and a professor of artwork. “(Dudik) is an incredible credit to the field, and we are remarkably lucky to have him here at William & Mary.”

Dudik trains W&M college students (“brilliant and curious,” he calls them) in his introductory images course to work with the view digicam, too. “And they love it,” he mentioned. “It’s slow and meditative, and you can be very precise with your composition. It’s a really beautiful way of seeing the world; this methodology and materiality standing in remarkable contrast to our fast-paced digital lives.”  

Visions of paradise, views of warfare

The 20 images acquired by the Library of Congress are from two separate sequence nearly reverse in subject material. In 2013, Dudik started composing the photographs in “Paradise Road” throughout journeys throughout the U.S., in search of out totally different locations named Paradise Road. Dudik got down to catalog America’s various definition of what paradise may appear like. What he discovered had been principally rural landscapes and the individuals who name that place residence. 

For his “Broken Land” sequence, Dudik additionally traveled the nation, this time photographing lesser-known U.S. Civil War battlefields. He intentionally created them with none of the signage or accoutrements that may determine them as locations the place warfare was waged. “I wanted to speak about the divisions in the country because (at the time he took the photographs, beginning in 2011) I felt a great division between left and right, and I wanted to consider the time period that led up to the American Civil War in comparison to our, then, current moment,” Dudik mentioned.  

Each of those images is panoramic. “The point of the very large size was so you can almost feel like you are walking into the print, all in the name of making those places feel familiar, like you could be looking at one’s backyard, as opposed to something set aside as special and from another time,” Dudik mentioned. 

The 20 images can be found for public viewing on the Division of Prints and Photographs in the Library of Congress. Select pictures from each sequence will be considered on Dudik’s website. Currently, he’s getting ready for Faculty Show 16, scheduled for the Muscarelle Museum of Art starting Oct. 17, the place his images will seem alongside the varied art work of his friends and emeriti professors via Jan. 11, 2026. 

Susan Corbett, Communications Specialist