‘Everyman’ exhibit displays faces from around the world

One hundred and forty-four portraits from across the world, taken by University of Illinois Professor James Warfield, hang on display in the windows of the Alpha Rho Chi house on First Street. The photographs are part of the Boneyard Arts Festival, which Vadim Olden

By Amy Fishman

One hundred and forty-four photos of people from all around the world are on display in the windows of Alpha Rho Chi architecture and allied arts fraternity, 1108 S. First St., in an exhibition titled “Everyman: Faces on the World.”

James Warfield, retired University professor of architecture, put up the exhibit with the help of Alpha Rho Chi members to display his latest work. He said the portraits constitute “Everyman,” showing that every man is like every other man, but every individual is unique.

“Everyman is an exhibit … that will offer visitors a unique insight on humanity,” said Douglas Milburn, alumni association president of the Alpha Rho Chi chapter at the University.

The exhibit will also be on display for the Boneyard Arts Festival this weekend.

The festival, scheduled for April 15 to 17, celebrates the arts on the streets and in many of the venues of Champaign County.

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Milburn said the venues have displays to subject people to the arts, similar to a gallery.

Katherine Pemberton, a member of Alpha Rho Chi, said this is the first year the fraternity will participate in the festival.

“We thought it would be a good way to get our name out into the community,” said Pemberton, sophomore in FAA. “We thought it would be nice to bring people to campus.”

Milburn said he wanted to get the students more involved in the community and expose the art of the University’s faculty, so he organized the fraternity’s participation in the festival.

“At Alpha Rho Chi, we wanted to open our doors to an exhibit in hopes of allowing the community, as well as the University, to experience the art of our faculty,” Milburn said.

Pemberton said each festival venue has its own artist, so Alpha Rho Chi worked with Warfield to organize the display of the Everyman exhibit.

Warfield, who still remains active in the school of architecture, said that since his retirement, he has been studying Vernacular architecture, and the Everyman Exhibit is a “by-product” of his research.

Warfield said he generally photographs people everywhere he goes and has taken them in 30 to 40 different countries. He said he probably has 2,000 to 4,000 pictures of people.

Warfield said he likes to photograph the people of the places he visits to study architecture.

“I never look at the architecture without looking at the people,” he said. “The people are a part of the place. The architecture doesn’t stand alone.”

Warfield said the willingness of people to allow him to photograph them depends on their culture. He said it is easy to photograph people in China because they feel very honored; however, Muslim women are difficult to photograph.

Many people, especially children, often approach him and want to be photographed, he said.

Warfield said he once traveled to a village in China to study the architecture, and the people there wanted their pictures taken. A 104-year-old woman had never had her picture taken before, so Warfield took hers with a Polaroid camera and gave her the photo to keep.

“There’s almost a story behind every (photo),” Warfield said.

Warfield said that when selecting photos for the exhibit, he chose the photos of highest artistic quality and aimed for a balance of photos.

“We tried to represent all the different parts of the world,” he said.

As for arranging the exhibit, Warfield said Alpha Rho Chi members cleaned the windows and helped him put up the pictures. He said they displayed the better ones in the middle, at eye level.

Pemberton said the fraternity house will be open to visitors for the festival, and the entire display can be seen from the outside.

“I think it makes a really interesting statement from the outside,” Pemberton said.