For the past several years, the City of Tampa has issued a national call to artists for its annual Photographer Laureate Program. The selected photographer has been charged with the task of using his or her own creative perspective to capture Tampa's inherent individuality. The results have varied greatly, from candid city life shots, to vividly surreal landscapes, to mixed-media vignettes spotlighting various area landmarks. Connecticut photographer Marion Belanger was commissioned for the 2007 program. Belanger is known for her preoccupation with change in relation to the land; but after exploring Tampa's downtown and discovering a terrain of vacated buildings and new construction, Belanger shifted her focus to the transformation of the old, the building of the new, and spaces that resist transition. Her finished "Real Estate/Spaces in Transition" portfolio is unveiled in the Big Picture Photographer Laureate exhibit, on view at the American Institute of Architects Gallery and open to the public beginning this Monday. Aug. 25-late fall, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri., Gallery AIA, 200 N. Tampa St., Suite 100, downtown Tampa, free admission, 813-229-3411, aiatampabay.com.
This article appears in Aug 13-19, 2008.