Student Photography Project Uses Social Media to Bring the Campus Together

ConnPix, a Tumblr and Facebook account of photos from around campus, has steadily gained popularity since its launch this summer by Andrew Nathanson ’13.  Nathanson has posted a picture every day since September 3 and hopes to continue this personal project.  His goal is to photograph life at Conn in a unique way and to capture his senior year “in a nutshell.” The Voice had the chance to sit down with Andrew and ask him a few questions about ConnPix.

The College Voice: What gave you the idea to start ConnPix?
Andrew Nathanson: I am a photographer on campus already for College Relations on the website and in the magazine, and I work for other departments and clubs like the theater department and Wig & Candle. So I already do a lot of photography on campus.  Also when I studied abroad last fall in Rome I had a photo blog. It would be ideal to get to the point where people want to have their own events captured on the site, to kind of become a retrospective of everyone’s year.  The goal for me was to get me to bring my camera with me more and photograph life at Conn, but also to kind of capture senior year in a nutshell.

TCV: What kind of content do you like to capture?
AN: Because I’m an architecture student, I’m very much attracted to the physical campus. I have been very fortunate at times to have rooms that have beautiful views.  Junior year, returning from abroad, I was extremely fortunate to have arguably the best room on campus, with a view of the chapel out one window and the ocean out the other. But I also try to look for the more unexpected unique situations I come across on a daily basis. That might be a wedding that happens to be on campus, or a view of something normal on campus but with something strange going on. For instance, something lighthearted like a sandwich left alone in Harris.

TCV: Why did you choose Tumblr as your medium?
AN: I could just make an Instagram account, but there is no formal way to go through it like a journal, which is why I’m going with a more blog route.  I like the form because it’s a cross between a blog and Twitter. You can forward along other people’s content, but it’s also more of a long form way to post things than Twitter.

TCV: How do you feel now that your Tumblr is gaining some popularity?
AN: I see Tumblr here as more of the platform.  If one can call this getting popular, I don’t think it’s getting popular because it’s a Tumblr, but because of the content on it. The reason this is getting popular on campus is because it appeals to people and also has a single topic.  I have a personal Tumblr, and if I were posting this in with my random thoughts and random other blog postings, it would get lost.  To have it separated and dedicated to one purpose makes a difference. Because it’s Conn College eccentric, alums have taken an interest.  It brings them back to reminiscing.  I hope that if a perspective student were to find it, it would be something positive for them to see: sort of an unfiltered day in the life. But overall I think it’s a personal challenge to keep it up every day and force myself to really do it.

TCV: What advice do you have for other aspiring photographers?
AN: Well I’m in no position to really give advice, but I do have a “nice” camera.  But half the pictures I take just come from my iPhone.  It’s all about keeping an eye open while you’re living and while you’re around on campus and looking for things of interest. You don’t always need to have a nice camera.

TCV: What would you like the Conn community to get out of ConnPix?
AN: If people have photos that they think captures the essence of a day in life, I would be thrilled to open this up a little bit.

To check out Andrew’s project, click here: http://connpix.tumblr.com/