david allio

Over forty years ago I began recording history with a camera and silver-based film. My subjects have ranged from poverty and striking coal miners of my native Southwest Virginia, deep in the heart of Appalachia, to the various professional sports and entertainment industries. The objective has always been to record history as accurately as possible.

Now, approaching 60 years of life, I am attempting to obtain a Master of Fine Arts degree – a personal goal for decades. The application process was completed earlier this year. Then the waiting and anticipation began. Today on 10-11-12, coincidentally a roulette bet, I received an e-mail from the Vermont College of Fine Arts confirming my acceptance into their graduate school program.

Danielle Dahline, the Program Director for the MFA in Visual Art program at the Vermont College of Fine Arts, said the magic words. “I am so pleased to let you know that you have been accepted into our MFA in Visual Art program beginning with the January 25 – February 3, 2013 residency.”

The application process required a portfolio of 20 photographs and an essay of no more than 1000 words. The first draft of the essay was exactly 1000 words – an example of how writing for newspapers and magazines had taught me to write to space. The final version was trimmed by five percent. More difficult was the task of assembling a portfolio of 20 images. It was a challenge not due to quantity, quality, or variety, but there was a limitation that all works must have been created within the past five years. That eliminated 35 years of my archives, and more than a few of my favorite photographs.

Party Crashers | ©2012 David Allio for Corbis

My more recent works must have proven satisfactory because the portfolio passed the admissions test. The complete portfolio contained many of the photographs featured in this blog. Only two of the final 20 were of auto racing – both published last year. The remainder of the submitted digital photographs included a mixture of landscapes and people with this photo entitled “Party Crashers” as the opening image of the presentation.

In the acceptance email from VCFA, Danielle added, “The Admissions Committee was very intrigued by the space that your practice occupies. Situated between the aesthetic traditions of straight photography and documentary journalism, your work raises important questions about how representations—be they media images or aesthetic compositions—convey information and construct meaning. With extensive experience and expertise in producing images for audiences of both genres of photography, you bring a rich background to the MFA experience.”

The most obvious questions are: “Why go back to school now?” and “Why Vermont?”

The answer to the first is: although I have been a student of life for the past few decades, I have not been a student at an institution of higher education since 1989 and now is the time for me to learn something new. The answer to “Why Vermont?” will be the subject of a future blog entry.

Thank you VCFA. I’m coming, and you’ve been warned that I am not a “typical” student.