Last Tuesday, Feb., 11, Union University communication arts professor, Aaron Hardin, spoke among his colleagues and students at the opening reception for his photo exhibit “Silhouettes in the Void.”
Hardin is one of the most brutally honest and hard-headed professors you’ll ever come across. It’s a part of his charm, I guess. However, as I write the words “part of his charm,” I imagine Hardin reading that line and sarcastically chuckling to himself, “what charm, I don’t got no charm.”
As a repeat student of Hardin’s, I can assure you that he is capable of charm. His blunt and straightforward personality resonates with his students.
“I just think he’s cool and too talented to be a professor,” said junior graphics design major, Tucker Latham, in regards to Hardin. “I feel like I can go to his class and have fun, but I always learn something from him too. And he’s pretty funny.”
Despite this popular opinion among his students, Hardin still has a hard time believing people actually care about what he’s doing. Perhaps this is why he opened his lecture with the question, “How many people have to be here?”
As a professor, he recognizes that most students only come to events like this when our professors either make it a grade or offer extra credit. He wasn’t wrong in this assumption, as a majority of the room raised their hands.
Hardin attended Union as a student himself, earning a degree in digital media communications. He eventually discovered photography and soon became consumed with it. He’s traveled the world for his photography, but eventually, he landed back in Jackson, Tenn.
“So a little backstory, I try not to get too much into this with my students,” Hardin said. “But we had a really tumultuous early life, my family.”
With this, Hardin dove into the story of his small town photography projects that heavily feature members of his family. He began to show us work from his project titled “other family.” This body of work portrays Hardin’s exploration into the side of his family he felt disconnected to. He explained that this project provided a way for him to explore the town that served as a symbol of the crumbling familial structure that befell that side of his family.
After taking us on this journey, he led us into another with his project titled “the 13th spring.” This photo story is like the first in that the subject of the story is mostly Hardin’s family or moreso, the concept of his growing family. It was during this time in his life that Hardin and his wife welcomed their baby girl into the world.
“I’ve seen some stuff, we’ll say, in my life. I’ve seen how cruel the world can be,” Hardin said. “And the thought of bringing a pure vessel into this world – there was a bit of sadness for me.”
After examining this project in its entirety, it seems to explore the purity of Hardin’s brand new baby daughter compared to the evil this world offers for her to discover.
After Hardin has just taken his audience by the hand and walked each of us through these images, explaining in detail his inspiration and purpose for both “other family” and “the 13th spring,” he introduces the project that’s being displayed in the exhibit.
“Silhouettes in the Void,” looks drastically different from the two photo projects Hardin first showed us. These photos are “instant pictures” not taken on a DSLR to be printed later. These pictures, although still of nature, are more staged than the photos in the previous projects. These photos are more obscure. The story in these photos is harder to interpret, but this is intentional.
Hardin explained how this project differs from the rest. He says that usually a project will just land in his lap after aimlessly making pictures, but this one came to him in a vision.
“In my mind I saw a red hand in a black frame,” Hardin said. “Just as clear as day, a red hand on a polaroid… so I did what any good artist would do, and I said yes.”
Hardin began to close up his lecture as he explained that the reason for all the creative decisions in this project were made for the simple reason of, “it just feels right.”
Hardin didn’t explain these photos much or what the meaning behind this photo story is to him. However, he encouraged the audience to explore the images in the gallery and interpret the composition in a way that feels right to them.
“Silhouettes in the Void,” will be featured in the art gallery of the Penick Academic Complex until March 19. Stop by if you’re feeling anxious or artsy, it’ll fill the void.
Photo courtesy of Union University
