Smoke Break by Jerry Qiao ’22

Jerry Qiao ’22 recently exhibited his photograph, Smoke Break, in Forsaken, an exhibit at the Southeast Center for Photography in Greenville, SC on view Oct. 2-Oct. 31. Additionally, the photo is a top 60 winner in ASAP! CT’s Celebration of Young Photographers. ASAP! is an arts organization based in nearby Washington, CT.

A photography student since his prep year, Jerry is currently an upper-mid and enrolled in the honors photography portfolio course with Greg Lock, director of the photography, film, and related media program. Jerry describes Mr. Lock as a mentor whose “guidance, encouragement, and patient temperament has made a genuine impact on who I am as a person and how that impacts my artwork”.

Liqiang Wu, a conceptual photographer for whom Jerry worked as an intern in China last summer, encouraged him to submit works to the Southeast Center for consideration. Jerry submitted four images, all of which intentionally pushed the conceptual boundaries of the prospectus for the Forsaken exhibit. This is his first exhibit in a professional gallery.

Jerry captured his photo of a man taking a smoke break at his windowsill while on a solitary walk during quarantine for the coronavirus. “The photo is set in one of the many rundown neighborhoods in Shanghai that were particularly struck with poverty and hardship when the pandemic hit. Today, our society’s footsteps move ceaselessly at an exponentially increasing rate; one of the few benefits of quarantine is that it has forced us to stop, reflect, and take a break.”

To view more photography by Hotchkiss students reflecting experiences during the global pandemic, including another of Jerry’s images, visit The Hotchkiss Record article published May 2020.