Photo of boys playing in the college's Hobart Park, near Richardson Stadium, is in the exhibit of Bill Giduz photos that opens tonight. (Bill Giduz photo)

By DAVID BORAKS
DavidsonNews.net

Over the past three decades, Bill Giduz has written about and photographed thousands of Davidson people and events. Now, as the 57-year-old Davidson College news director closes in on his 30th anniversary at the college, he’s being honored with a retrospective exhibit of his photos – images that tell a story both of life in Davidson and of Mr. Giduz’s care and devotion to his longtime home.

“Picturing Davidson: Bill Giduz and His First 30 Years” includes more than 200 images. The show opens tonight (Thursday, Oct. 15) with a reception from 7 to 9 p.m. at Belk Visual Arts Center, Main and Griffith Streets.

See a gallery of Mr. Giduz and his photos below.

Mr. Giduz is a familiar face here, turning up at many town and campus events with camera in hand. His articles and photographs appear in campus publications and the Davidson College website; on DavidsonNews.net, where his front-page banner photos are a reader favorite; and in local newspapers.

Mr. Giduz uses a ladder to shoot the staff of Stowe's Exxon downtown, on the day it closed in December 2007. See a photo gallery below. (David Boraks photo)

A native of Chapel Hill, Mr. Giduz said in a recent interview that he “grew up with photography because my father was a news photographer and journalist. … He had a dark room in our basement.”

He sees his work as more craft than art, and said he was honored when Davidson College gallery director Brad Thomas told him this summer that he wanted to stage an exhibit of his work.

“I always considered myself just a craftsman with the camera, so it’s kind of neat that they would consider it art enough to exhibit it,” Mr. Giduz said, with a humility familiar to those who know him.

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A GRAD WHO RETURNED

He came to Davidson first as a student, in the Class of 1974. Later, he earned a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University.

Thirty years ago, in the fall of 1979, he was doing corporate news writing and photography at regional telephone company Southern Bell in Atlanta. He made a trip back to campus for his fifth reunion, and learned that a similar job was available in the college news office.

A few months later, in January 1980, he came back to Davidson as a photographer and writer. He’s now the college’s Director of Media Relations.

3 DECADES OF IMAGES

The 200 or so photographs are a “nice look back at recent Davidson history,” Mr. Giduz said. (Davidson itself is 172 years old.) They include candid scenes captured on campus, college sporting events, graduations and convocations and people.

How does he decide what to shoot? “As the news guy and photo guy, you just don’t want to miss anything,” he said.

Mr. Giduz helped choose the images for the show, along with the help of his Davidson College communications colleagues and Mr. Thomas. They chose photos that “capture the spirit of Davidson, those images that represent this fine life and this fine town.”

ACCENT ON POSITIVE

But they’re not art, he insists. “An artist is someone who starts with nothing and creates something. I could never do that. If I have something there, I can recognize a photograph if it exists,” he said.

Mr. Giduz is known as a man who cares about his college, his town and the people he meets. And he tries to reflect that in his photos. “I’ve always been interested in showing the uplifting and positive sides of events and people,” he said.

The photos are also a record of Mr. Giduz’s work and dedication to Davidson. He has spent thousands of hours quietly behind the scenes photographing, writing and celebrating Davidson and Davidsonians. And he has made a real impression on those around him.

“He’s chronicled the community, and that takes a persistence and a consistent devotion to recording what’s going on. He has done so with the dispassion of a journalist and with the passion of a neighbor,” said Meg Kimmel, a colleague in the college’s communications office.

Bill not only has worked for the college, but he’s given his time to organize local events (the annual Hurricane Hugo Juggling Festival and Family Vaudeville Extravaganza, for example) and help nonprofit groups get the word out about their activities. Those have included Habitat for Humanity, Davidson Housing Coalition and Davidson Community Players.

Marcia Webster, executive director of the Davidson Housing Coalition, said: “When I think of Bill, I think of his commitment, to the whole community. He’s not just a name on a piece of paper; he’s truly there.”

Mr. Giduz lives not far from Main Street in the old part of town. He is married to Ellen Giduz, librarian at both the Davidson and Cornelius branches of the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. They have two children, Jenny and Luke.

WANT TO GO?

“Picturing Davidson: Bill Giduz and His First 30 Years” runs Oct. 16 through Dec. 9 at Davidson College’s Belk Visual Art Center, Main and Griffith Streets. It opens with a reception Thursday, Oct. 15, 7-9 p.m.

Also opening at the same time is an exhibit titled “Staring,” co-curated by college assistant curator Jessica Cooley and English professor Ann Fox. Inspired by the book “Staring: How We Look,” by Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, professor of women’s studies at Emory University), it includes paintings and drawings by Doug Auld and Chris Rush, and the photographs of Weegee, Diane Arbus, Garry Winogrand, and additional artists.

Hours: Weekdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., weekends, noon to 4 p.m. Admission free. Details on the college website.

BILL GIDUZ AND HIS PHOTOS

Below is a gallery of photos by Bill Giduz, as well as a few photographs of Mr. Giduz at work, by DavidsonNews.net editor (and Bill Giduz fan) David Boraks. Click on any image to launch the slide show.