Photographer Jeff Etheridge and Comer Museum director Donna Rentfrow hang one of Etheridge’s architectural close ups.
Sylacauga native Jeff Etheridge, who happens to be director of photography services for Auburn’s Office of Communications and Marketing Department, has delivered an assortment of his work through the years, documenting the changing Auburn campus.
There’s the architecture and sports venues, the way the campus has been transformed into a “Walking campus” over the past 10 years and of course, there are the eagles.
Titled “A Look at Auburn Today,” the images are available to the public through the university’s web site and Office of Communications and Marketing Department.
Etheridge has also released a book, “Echoes Strong and Clear,” that includes old photographs of the university along with newer one he has taken himself.
There’s a reception or Etheridge Thursday, Jan. 19, starting at 6:30 p.m. at the museum and it continues until 8 p.m. with food and beverages, live entertainment from “Jazz Man” Bob Phillips and the opportunity to meet the photographer.
“I am really looking forward to it,” Etheridge said.
Sylacauga will always be “home” for him, he said. His family moved there when was in the second grade and his mother, Betty Etheridge, still lives in Sylacauga.
She, too, will attend the reception, Etheridge said.
He has been employed by Auburn University for 20 years, and shoots photos for a variety of publications and university needs.
He started out as a darkroom technician and moved to being a photographer and is now head of the department.
Etheridge said he picked up his first “real” camera-other than a Brownie-when he was about 15-years-old.
Being brought up in a media type environment probably encouraged him toward the career he choose, he said.
Etheridge’s parents Betty Etheridge and the late Earl Etheridge, owned three movie theatres in town, the original Martin Theatre, the Plaza Twin and the Comet Drive-In.
He has earned recognition and awards nationally for his photography and has photographed events globally in Uganda Africa, Bolivia and Ecuador, South America, Israel, Canada and China. In 2011, Etheridge had images featured in a Time Magazine Video on Haiti.
If you miss the reception and want to see Etheridge’s work, it is also available from the Barnes and Noble web site.The book is also available in shops around town in Auburn.
Contact Laura Nation-Atchison at lnation@dailyhome.com.
