NSCAD photographer nabs prestigious scholarship

Granville Street mall with NSCAD on the left. Photo: Catherine Burgess

Eliot Wright is a photography student in his fourth and final year at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax. Unlike his classmates, who are spending their fall semester in a classroom, Eliot is spending most of the semester in Greece.

Eliot is a recipient of this year's Roloff Beny Photography Scholarship offered through NSCAD. This is a scholarship awarded to highly skilled senior-level photography students. The $5,000 award gives students the opportunity to pursue ambitious out-of-classroom projects.

Eliot was selected for the prestigious scholarship by a panel of NSCAD media arts professors in March, after proposing a photography project that would take him to Greece. His project proposal could have taken him anywhere, but Eliot chose Greece with a particular photography goal in mind.

"When I proposed this project, I was primarily interested in tracking the development of architecture in Greece, while considering the notion of fragility," he wrote in a profile to his university. But he wrote that he could see how the debt crisis is looming over Athens, and so he tweaked his plan when he began snapping photos.

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The Anna Leonowens Gallery at NSCAD in Halifax. Photo: Catherine Burgess

"Now, I am focusing more on the economy, while keeping the idea of "social architecture" and ... fragility in my mind."

In an email from Greece, the photography student writes that his project has been keeping him busy. He spends his days exploring and photographing Greece.

"Here, you find yourself working for 12 hours a day, or more. Luckily, I really enjoy what I do and I am experiencing new things, so it doesn't really feel like work."

Eliot says he is honored to have received the prestigious scholarship and he feels proud of himself for such an achievement.

"Having such a powerful scholarship dedicated to the photography program is very valuable, in my opinion," he writes.

Eliot's goals for life after graduation have mostly remained the same, but now he sees more possibility and opportunity with each project he will pursue.

"I still want to teach photography at the university level in the years to come. I think what has changed is that the world feels a little smaller now."

When he returns to Halifax in November, Eliot will showcase his work from Greece in an exhibition at the Anna Leonowens Gallery at NSCAD. The gallery will be open to NSCAD students and to the public.

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