Education Prof's Photography Getting National Notice
Date: Oct. 11, 2002
By: Eric Lose
Contact: Dawn Fuller
Phone: (513) 556-1823
Image Copyright 2002 by Dan Wheeler
Archive: General News
Just look around and you can find art all over the University of Cincinnati campus. Beautiful compositions can be found in the various campus galleries, adorning entryways at major buildings, or just tucked away in some neat little corner to be discovered like a surprise package on your birthday.
One of the nicer art surprises currently on campus is at the Teachers College: four digital photographs by UC Associate Professor Dan Wheeler. Wheeler is a cognitive psychologist and associate professor in the Educational Foundations Program at the College of Education. He was a photographer throughout high school and college and at one time seriously considered it for a profession. "I started graduate school in psychology," said Wheeler. "I found that my grad school and serious work in photography didn't mix."
Wheeler gave up the cameras completely in 1965, but decided to return to them five years ago when he discovered digital equipment. "I became very serious about it," he said, "and started doing photography as an art, the kind of images that would hang on gallery walls."
Wheeler's portfolio includes a set of architectural photographs featuring stairways entitled "Up/Down." During July and August, four pieces from this collection were displayed in a juried show at the B.J. Spoke Gallery in Huntington, N.Y. The New York Times review of the exhibition singled out only a few of the 46 photographers involved: one was Wheeler. "It was nice to see my work hanging on the wall," he said, "and also to be mentioned in the Times."
Recently Wheeler began to intertwine his photographic work with academic life at UC. "I'm beginning to work on visual cognition," he said. "I've taught a seminar on visual literacy in the age of multimedia."
The four photos from the New York show are on display in Room 435 of Teachers College. Four more prints from his "Up/Down" series are on display in the Faculty Technology Resource Center in Room 410 of Zimmer. More of Wheeler's work can be seen at his online album.
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