North Hennepin Exhibit Honors Longtime Faculty Member
For 47 years, Will Agar taught photography at North Hennepin Community College in Brooklyn Park.
“But as a teacher, I seldom showed my own work because I felt [students] should find their own voice in terms of what they see,” said Agar.
Now, this longtime professor, who retired in 2022, is finally getting his time in the spotlight.
North Hennepin’s Fine Arts Center is showcasing Agar’s work in an exhibit called “Voyages of the Eye: Will Agar | A 50 Year Retrospective Exhibit”
The exhibit features everything from nature photos and shots of people he met while traveling abroad to pictures of things around the Twin Cities that captured his imagination.
“I remember going up and down this alley over and over again with the dogs and seeing all these lines all over the place, it just looked like a photograph,” Agar said.
Each of the photographs in this exhibit are in black and white, which is a style that he’s remained passionate about after all these years.
“Black and white is very controllable,” he said. “In a way, it’s quite simple in that you don’t have to deal with the fussiness of color, and simply design tones, and the impact of the image.”
Agar learned his craft from his father, and then drew inspiration from living among nature near Maple Grove’s Fish Lake.
For anyone who is able to come and see this exhibit, his only advice is to enjoy the beauty of black and white photography.
“It’s kind of a culmination of 47 years of teaching,” he said. “It’s giving one last, little swan dive to the school.”
The exhibit is free and open to the public. You can check it out through Oct. 6 at North Hennepin’s Joseph Gazzuolo Gallery in the Fine Arts Center.
Will Agar shows off one of his photos.
Joseph Gazzuolo Gallery Hours:
Monday-Friday:
9 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Saturday:
9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Related: Weekend Showcase: NHCC’s “Eye on India”
