RIT Takes "Big Shot" Photography Project Overseas

With a name like "Big Shot," it seemed inevitable that Rochester Institute of Technology’s favorite photo project would become an international event.

On Thursday, Oct. 9, faculty from RIT’s School of Photographic Arts and Sciences and the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) will lead volunteers in creating a nighttime photograph of the Royal Palace in Stockholm, Sweden. It’s among the events planned for the first-ever Lennart Nilsson Conference on Scientific Photography.

Big Shot, often described as a "painting with light" photograph, involves hundreds of assistants—armed with camera flashes and flashlights—that illuminate the subject area during an extended exposure. Sweden’s Royal Palace will become RIT’s 20th Big Shot.

Faculty members Michael Peres, Bill DuBois and Dawn Tower DuBois reprise their roles as Big Shot coordinators, but conference organizers in Europe will handle the early planning. The time and expense of overseas travel makes it difficult for the RIT faculty to address preliminary details for the event.

"The three of us have a lot of experience in making these pictures, so it’s unusual for us to pass along that responsibility," explains Peres, chair of RIT’s biomedical photography program. "There are always a number of subtle details to choreograph, so we won’t know what to expect until we get there. Of course, with each Big Shot, we’re never sure what will happen."

Staffan Larsson, director of media at Stockholm’s Huddinge University, first proposed bringing the project to Sweden. Larsson became acquainted with Big Shot last year while judging entries for RIT’s Images from Science exhibition. He now serves as the liaison between Big Shot coordinators and the various contacts in Stockholm.

The goal of the Lennart Nilsson Conference is to provide added exposure to an annual awards program commemorating significant achievements in scientific photography. Big Shot becomes a welcome highlight of the conference.

"We’re anxious to expose more people to the importance of photography in various scientific disciplines," says Larsson. "This is a great way to showcase RIT’s expertise in a way that is both technically complex and visually appealing."

As the first international Big Shot, this is the latest evolution in the history of the project. A photograph taken in 1999 of the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum in New York City became the first such event outside the Rochester area. The 2001 image taken of the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, became the first Big Shot conducted beyond New York state borders.

Updates on the status of RIT’s Big Shot will be available by visiting the Web at www.rit.edu/bigshot.

Internationally recognized as a leader in imaging, technology, fine and applied arts, and education of the deaf, Rochester Institute of Technology enrolls more than15,000 full- and part-time students in more than 250 career-oriented and professional programs. Its cooperative education program is one of the oldest and largest in the nation.

For over a decade, U.S. News and World Report has ranked RIT as one of the nation’s leading comprehensive universities. RIT is also included in Yahoo Internet Life’s Top 100 Wired Universities, Fisk’s Guide to America’s Best Colleges, as well as Barron’s Best Buys in Education.

RIT's renowned School of Photographic Arts and Sciences, part of the College of Imaging Arts and Sciences, is among the premier photography schools in the country. Degree programs are offered in biomedical photography, advertising, fine art, imaging and photographic technology, imaging systems management, and photojournalism. The College of Imaging Arts and Sciences’ MFA program is ranked No. 1 by U.S. News and World Report.