Eye on Africa Showcases Professor Larry Broutman Photographs
The latest art @ IIT exhibit features photographs taken throughout Eastern and Southern Africa by Larry Broutman, professor of Materials Engineering. His Eye on Africa exhibit will be displayed at the Gallery Lounge in the HUB through September 30.
Eye on Africa covers the Eastern and Southern parts of the continent, including Uganda, Zambia, Namibia, Kenya, Botswana, and South Africa. The photographs range from people to wildlife to landscapes. The wildlife shots include the familiar: leopards, cheetahs, gorillas, baboons, elephants, rhinoceros, wildebeests, zebras, hippopotamuses, and giraffes. Gallery visitors will also see the unexpected--malachite kingfisher and the lilac breasted roller.
Very few of the images show the normal day-to-day life and death struggle his subjects surely endure. The focus is more on the relationship of the subject to their place in the landscape—the quiet majesty and power of the people, wildlife and landscape of Africa.
The color prints originate from 35 mm slides. Broutman uses Nikon equipment with lenses up to 600 mm. The production process starts with drum scanning to create an appropriate digital file. Fine art quality prints are produced on Fuji Crystal Archive photographic paper using laser output from a Light Jet or Lambda printer.
Broutman joined IIT in 1967 as associate professor in the Department of Mechanics. In 1970 he became professor of Materials Engineering in the Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering. In 1984 Larry founded L.J. Broutman & Associates, a consulting engineering firm and plastics testing laboratory, while continuing his IIT career as research professor in the MMAE Department.
During his professional career, he was a prolific research investigator and author, publishing 170 technical articles and authoring/co-editing twelve text and reference books. As a photographer, his images have been sold to corporations, private collectors, and travel publications.
Founded in 1890, IIT is a Ph.D.-granting technological university awarding degrees in the sciences, mathematics and engineering, as well as architecture, psychology, design, business and law. IIT’s interprofessional, technology-focused curriculum prepares the university’s 6,200 students for leadership roles in an increasingly complex and culturally diverse global workplace.
