The Journal
HOW TO TAKE A PHYSICALLY-DISTANCED MATRICULATION PHOTO...
In contrast to the cover image of this edition of the Journal - taken in October 2019 - the 2020 matriculation photos posed a new challenge to our regular photographer, John Thompson of Jet Photographic. In place of a carefully-constructed gantry, to be negotiated gingerly in heels and gowns, students faced a new health and safety risk: COVID.
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Colleges tackled the obvious problem of proximity in a number of ways. Some resorted to aeriel shots, taken from chapels and towers; others opted to photograph students in their household ‘bubbles’. But at Fitzwilliam, we firmly believe in the the best of the old and the new, and were keen to attempt something a little more 21st century: a digital composition, designed to recreate the traditional photograph, but ‘stitched’ together using technology. The work began several months before the arrival of the students, when a hardy group of graduate students - locked down in the summer at Fitzwilliam - agreed to be guinea pigs. Look closely at the picture in the background...can you see anything unusual? John Thompson explains: “In lockdown last summer I was fully aware we may not be able to take our traditional Matriculation picture on our staging. I had this idea of trying to take individual people, superimposing it and making it look just like the Matriculation photos colleges are accustomed to. “Living in a village and due to lockdown, the challenge was finding half a dozen young people to experiment on. Fortunately, Suzy Sheardown from Tutorial volunteered some graduate students. We arranged a summer’s evening and half a dozen graduate students came along in their gowns.”
