The Rocky Mountain School of Photography Student Show 2007

By Chris Lombardi, 9-20-07

	Caption: Click the image above to view the RMSP Student Gallery. Photo by RMSP student, Chris McQueary.

If you’ve lived in Missoula for any length of time you may have noticed a peculiar seasonal phenomenon that occurs in early summer. Just as the university students ship out and the streets quiet down, the weather warms and the river is good for floating, a large flock of folks bearing all manner of photography gear fills our streets. They wander, they stare, they tilt their heads this way and that, and sometimes they ask you for a photograph.

These wandering shutterbugs are the latest class of students attending the Rocky Mountain School of Photography’s Summer Intensive program, an 11-week boot camp of sorts with the aim of refining raw photographic talent into the stuff of which art and careers are made. For 8 or more hours a day, these students are completely immersed in the practice of image-making, taught by professional instructors from all walks of the photographic life. As they wander around our town they are practicing their classroom lessons and gathering materials for critiques by their instructors.

The Summer Intensive program is capped off every year with a graduation ceremony and student show in which the photographers show off their black & white prints made in the RMSP darkrooms, as well as a digital slideshow of their best work. Not only are these shows quite good, but as an added bonus for Missoulians and Western Montanans, end up being something of a portrait of our community and region. New West is honored this year to host a “best of” of this “best of” slideshow. Click here or the image above to view this special slideshow, and enjoy.

For more information about the Rocky Mountain School of Photography, visit www.rmsp.com.