M.A. in Media Communication Grad's Photography Exhibitions Featured Across the United States and Abroad Alumni Profile
Meet Nathan Gentry '19
- Job Title & Employer
- Self-Employed Photographer, Printmaker and Writer, Nathan Gentry Photo
- Major/Program
- Media Communication-M.A.
- Hometown
- San Antonio, Texas
- High School
- James Madison High School
- Now Living In
- Salt Lake City, Utah
- Hobbies & Interests
- Photography, skateboarding, snowboarding, hiking, camping and being outdoors
"I would recommend Point Park's M.A. in media communication program because it forces you to become involved with your practice. The program is tough, but truly makes you identify what you want to do with your current work and how you can grow. The faculty that you work with is a small body of professionals, which keeps you close to your mentors throughout your studies. It is a great university to refine yourself."
Why did you choose Point Park University for graduate school?
I knew that Pittsburgh had a unique and individualized way of working and presenting photography and art. Being interested in the photographic process, as well as writing, I had to find a university that could combine my passion for working with photography and writing. Point Park had several programs within the School of Communication I could choose from that reached a multitude of interests.
Why would you recommend Point Park’s M.A. in media communication?
I would recommend the M.A. in media communication program because it forces you to become involved with your practice. The program is tough, but truly makes you identify what you want to do with your current work and how you can grow. The faculty that you work with is a small body of professionals, which keeps you close to your mentors throughout your studies. It is a great university to refine yourself.
Highlight your professional experiences since graduating from Point Park University.
Since leaving Point Park, I have worked to present my photography projects within galleries all across the United States. Projects like 53%, A.D.D., The Pittsburgh File and my current running collection, Our Planet, have been featured across the country. In the fall of 2019, my project work began traveling overseas to make appearances in four different cities throughout Italy, as well as traveling to museums in Berlin and the United Kingdom.
Tell us about your role as an artist in residence at The Leonardo museum.
The Leonardo museum was my first opportunity, post-grad, to work as an artist. I served as the photographer and social media contributor, but was humbled to be given the opportunity to work alongside another incredible artist from New Zealand, Heath Brodie. Together, we were named the artists in residence, and we were asked to take The Leonardo museum and transform it into a museum that focused on science and technology, and integrate a heavy emphasis on art.
Through our combined creative works, Heath and I began a project called A Journey Through the Great Salt Lake. This project required us to work hours on end to research and document the changes in climate patterns and the growth of global warming, and how it is affecting the world we are living in. Heath being an ephemeral land-based artist, and me being a photographer, videographer and writer, came together to formulate this traveling exhibition, which is still in the making.
What other projects are you working on?
I am in the midst of beginning a new project called Streaks of [un]Clarity. This project looks to focus on the importance of acknowledging one's self and presenting ourselves as we are, and as we always have been. This will be my first portrait series. I am also continuing my work with my ongoing collection Our Planet, which is a series that coincides with the video work that I have been doing for a nature documentary series.
What advice do you have for prospective students?
Keep going. The programs at Point Park can be tiresome and can demand a lot from you. This is not a negative thing. The effort that you put into your work through the next few years are instilling incredible values and ethics into your future career work.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
I want to say thank you to the faculty at Point Park. April Friges and Ben Schonberger are two of the greatest professors. Their critiques and questioning helped me look at my own processes and has helped guide me to a place that has improved my full body of work. I also want to give a huge thanks to my mentor Chris Rolinson. The advice I received from him, as I worked through my grad program, was insurmountable.