RIT Photo Shoot to Recreate Historical Painting of French Revolution

A love for classic paintings inspired photography students at Rochester Institute of Technology to want to recreate the scene of a historical painting of the 1800s for a final project.

Students from the Production Photography course at RIT are collaborating with graduate students from the Department of Dance at the College at Brockport to recreate the 1830 painting Liberty Leading the People by Eugene Delacroix. The photo shoot will be from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at Hartwell Dance Theater in Hartwell Hall on the College at Brockport campus.

Liberty Leading the People is from the French Revolution depicting the uprising of the common people or the bourgeois standing up for their rights.

The RIT students obtained props and period clothing for the nearly 15 volunteer dancers, all members of Brockport’s graduate choreography class, to make the photo shoot as authentic as possible.

“We were interested in romantic paintings and wanted to work with dancers to combine photography and theatre,” says Alexandra Miller, fourth-year RIT visual media major. “We will have a large lighting set-up, combining studio and stage lights. We are excited to be working with the dance department from Brockport on this ambitious production.”

Adds Maura Keefe, chair of the dance department at the College of Brockport: “Many of my students are not from this area so it gives them the opportunity to connect with other artists from RIT. People who make art approach things differently, so it’s interesting to see the negotiation process that the dancers and photographers go through together to make the production work.”