The B Roll

I took this photo in March of 2007 during the time of year when nothing looks good.  Piles of sludge on the ground, no leaves on the trees.  That probably explains why this scene of UST’s O’Shaughnessy-Frey Library has never been used.  It’s not the greatest image with which to promote the place.  To be honest, that’s one of the reasons I like it.

See, I spend a lot of my time taking pictures with the goal of making St. Thomas look idyllic.  And to be sure, St. Thomas has a gorgeous campus.  I thought so when I was a student and I still think so.  The buildings on the lower quad shelter you from the outside world and the grounds themselves are essentially an arboretum (and I mean that - the grounds were actually planned as a showcase for various types of midwestern trees).  It’s not hard to take a pretty picture where I work.

But places, like people, have dark to go with the light.  If you never see that, those places lose a bit of their reality.  I love photography because of the way it can tell stories.  If I didn’t take a picture like this of St. Thomas every so often, I would be doing a disservice to the truth of the place, a disservice to its story.  St. Thomas is wonderful not because it is perfect, but because it is human.