UT photography students said the photos they submitted to the exhibition of the UT chapter of the National Press Photographers Association on Sunday night were not necessarily geared toward publication in newspapers.

Rather, the photos — from a young girl on a swing at a carnival to a group of Indian children near an ocean — showed off students’ creative energies.

Plan II and photojournalism senior Ryan Edwards submitted a photograph of a girl drinking.

“The point of the photo show was that we could have a creative outlet for the more artistic photographs that the students of the NPPA program produce,” Edwards said. “So I just submitted one that I felt was a fun portrait with interesting colors and an interesting subject — it wasn’t necessarily photojournalistic at all.”

Pump Project Satellite Studios sponsored the exhibition, and Harry Ransom Center Curator Roy Flukinger juried and selected the pictures.

Journalism graduate student Spencer Selvidge, a co-president for the UT National Press Photographers Association, said the theme “hinterland” came about after the photographs were compiled.

“We decided that hinterland, which is the land behind the city, the unknown place — there’s a couple of different definitions of it — would be a good theme,” Selvidge said. “We thought it worked for the breadth of images that we had.”

Selvidge said the photographs chosen were some that would not necessarily end up being in the newspaper.

“It’s the peripheral stuff that’s pretty but doesn’t end up running,” Selvidge said.

Photojournalism senior Courtney Slade submitted a photograph of gypsies dancing in Prague, Czech Republic. She chose this photograph because it reminds her of her first trip to Europe.

“Our pictures were chosen based on the idea of what would sell or what people would want to hang on their walls,” Slade said.
The event was a silent auction that raised funds for the UT NPPA.