One of my proudest accomplishments as a student at Manhattanville College was the creation of Mville in Focus, a photo club with the mission of creating a community for all students with an interest and love of photography. The club’s first year of operations was held entirely virtually, which doesn’t lend itself naturally to photographic activities. When we were able to return to campus, I worked closely with my executive board to ensure that the club was focused on developing collaborative opportunities with other groups on campus, a pursuit in which we were incredibly successful. However, one of my personal goals for the club was to create an opportunity, at least once a year, for our members to showcase the work they were proud of.
Initially, I felt that a gallery might be the best pursuit since we do have multiple gallery spaces on campus. However, when consulting with our club’s faculty advisor, we quickly learned that a full-scale gallery likely wouldn’t be feasible with the budget we were provided. Another digital media professor was able to help me come up with the idea of creating a magazine-type publication, and the concept of the Viewbook was born.
In the development stages, photos were submitted by our club members and I designed the layout of the booklet in Adobe InDesign. The first half of the Viewbook featured a visual review of the club’s collaborations with other departments and student groups, as well as specialty events, to highlight the work we were able to accomplish as a community. The second half of the book provided each club member a page to showcase a singular photo they were proud of to highlight individual accomplishment. Participants did not need to have any background in photography to be included; they only had to be involved with the club.
Once the Viewbook was complete, Mville in Focus hosted a publication launch event in Reid Castle, where printed copies of the books would be distributed and light fare would be served. It was one of the most attended campus events of the academic year, with attendees representing a majority of student groups and campus departments. In addition to the positive feedback received from community members, a copy of the Viewbook was collected by a library staff member to be placed in the Manhattanville College archives.
April 2022 Update – The Mville in Focus Viewbook and Event was awarded the “Outstanding Event Award” at the Valiant Awards Ceremony for its embodiment of the Manhattanville mission.
Featured cover photo courtesy of Manhattanville University / Daniel Freel
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