"The light was what it was all about:
I would not go in till the light went out;
It would not go out till I came in.."
Robert Frost

Light Finally Shines in SLO

Cal Poly professor Sandra Lakeman is displaying her photographs of Italy for the first time in a local venue.
August 29, 2004 - San Luis Obispo

by Matt Sterling, The Tribune

For the past ten years, Sandra Lakeman's life's work sat in warehouses at Cal Poly.

The massive museum-quality exhibition, "Natural Light and the Italian Piazza," had been displayed only twice, but never in San Luis Obispo, where she taught architecture at Cal Poly since 1981.

Her impending retirement from the university, along with support from a new dean, brought the art out of storage.

Along with seven students, Lakeman spent nearly a month hanging more than 160 photographs exploring the history of the Italian piazza (called the "living room" of the italian people), focusing specifically on Siena, a small town near Florence built around a lively piazza.

She photographed the piazza from nearly every conceivable angle as the light reflected off different buildings. Some of the most striking images, presented in panorama form at the Performing Arts Center, show the clock tower's shadow on the piazza. Lakeman spent hours documenting how the light changed in the tower, taking photographs every five minutes.

In 1992, the show was displayed for more than a month in Siena's town hall, located along the piazza.

Each image at the Performing Arts Center is displayed in Plexiglas and hangs from aluminum tubing with fishing wire, making the photos appear to float. Along with the artwork, neighborhood flags give the exhibit an Italian flavor.