Take all Duke undergraduates (that's 6,197); then remove all the males (that leaves 3,005 women); now, try to encapsulate them in just five people.
Sound tough? It's the premise of the Five Women at Duke photography contest, which is open to all undergraduates through the end of February. The contest hopes to update two photos, taken in 1946 and 1976, both of which feature five women under a gothic arch.
"I always think it's valuable for people in general and for Duke University to be mindful of their history, so [it's] the opportunity to give the campus at large a chance to show their idea of women at Duke," said Jamaica Woodyard, program assistant at the Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture and co-chair of the Five Women at Duke committee. "It's a great opportunity to communicate through art."
The photos provide a window into Duke's past, said Claire Robbins, program coordinator at the Women's Center and the committee's other chair. In the original 1946 photo, five staid, conservatively dressed white students, each with her right foot forward, look to their left.
The 1976 photo was taken just four years after the merger of the Woman's College and Trinity College and the casual hairstyles and wide-flared pants betray their era. The image also features a black woman, Goldie Evans-wearing a stylishly large Afro. But Evans was not a student, but rather a staff member-a bookkeeper for the Union, in which the other four were involved.
"The [1976] photo was on my desk when I started this job," Robbins said. She originally intended to use the photos for VOICES Magazine, which she advises.
But she soon realized the potential for a re-creation, as 2006 marked the 60th and 30th anniversaries of the originals. Following a suggestion from Women's Center Director Donna Lisker, Robbins decided to hold a contest. With Woodyard, she created a committee comprising students and staff from the Women's Center, the Sally Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture, the University libraries and elsewhere to oversee the competition.
The committee decided to create two divisions, one for images that replicate the archway motif and a second for those that do not, with two prizes awarded in each.
"There's more than one Duke, and it's not just a gothic archway," Robbins said.
First-prize winners will receive a digital camera and a triptych with the 1946 and 1976 photos alongside their own, while the second-place photographer will receive a triptych with their own photos and the two predecessors.
In addition, photos will be on display at the Porch Gallery of the Center for Documentary Studies beginning with an opening to announce winners March 21. Robbins said she hopes to invite the students in the previous images back for the event.
She added that she would like to find a permanent display space for the images after the exhibition closes.
The submission period began Jan. 29 and closes Feb. 26, with submissions accepted at the MLWC or the Women's Center. There is no entry fee, but contestants must pay to develop their images. CCI Photographics on Perry Street has agreed to develop images at a discount rate of $15.
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