National award boosts freshman’s interest in photography

This photo by freshman Nathan Wells won the gold award and was featured in the National Student Art Exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and later hung in the Presidential Gallery.

2:43 p.m., Feb. 14, 2005--University of Delaware freshman Nathan Wells is an award-winning photographer, thanks to a digital camera that his aunt and uncle gave him for Christmas.

Wells said he developed an interest in photography and took several courses at Brandywine High School. His art teacher, Theresa Walton, encouraged him to enter his photographs in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards contest during his senior year.

Wells’ six-picture portfolio received a silver award in the state competition and one photograph won the gold award and was automatically entered in the national competition. The picture, which featured Well’s friend, Jeremy, at the bottom of a flight of stairs, won the gold award and was featured in the National Student Art Exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and later hung in the Presidential Gallery.

The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards provide an opportunity for young artists and writers in the 7th-12th grades to share their talent beyond their classrooms. The best works from each region are forwarded to New York for the national level of adjudication by panels of artists, writers, arts professionals and educators.

Wells, from Wilmington, said his basic interest in photography developed into an exciting hobby after taking formal courses and independent study. The quality of his pictures improved dramatically after his aunt and uncle, Cyndi and Frank Thoma, gave him an Olympus digital camera for Christmas in 2003, making it possible to experiment and shoot pictures much more freely.

Wells said winning at the national level inspired him to change his major from anthropology to fine arts with a concentration in photography.

Wells’ self-portrait

“I never did think that my work would actually win, even at the state level, much less the national level,” Wells said. “It was all a total surprise to me. It still amazes me when I think about it. It’s shown me what I'm really capable of achieving.

“I want to take my photography skills as high as I can. As of now, I only really take part in digital photography because my Canon AE-1 [film camera] is broken, but, as soon as I move into an apartment, I'm going to take up film again and, hopefully, install a darkroom. I'd like very much to somehow make a career out of it, maybe working for a magazine or just selling my own work, I don't really know. I guess I'll just see how it all plays out,” he said.

Wells said that in addition to many friends who enjoy photography, his mother, Maggie, who graduated from UD in 1983 with a degree in elementary education, had an interest in photography and took a course at UD.

“Photography makes going out all the better, because it will usually be a friend or two and I at a spot all shooting pictures, and it's really fun to compare shots,” Wells said.

Article by Martin Mbugua
Photos by Nathan Wells, AS ‘08

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