This is the fifth year in a row I’ve blogged some version of the rows of chairs Keene State College sets out each year for graduation. There’s something about the predictable geometry of neatly aligned folding chairs that I find aesthetically pleasing, and at this time of year, I’m always too busy grading papers to blog something new. So while I’m largely off-line dealing with my end-term paper-piles, I’ll leave you to contemplate rows of empty chairs as another class gets ready to begin their lives as college-educated professionals.
This is my contribution to today’s Photo Friday theme, Professional. As an amateur, I’m not exactly sure what makes for a “Professional” photo, but given the fact that paid crews take care every year to arrange the seats for graduation in meticulous rows, I figure this shot captures professionalism as well as any other.
Hoarded Ordinaries 
May 9, 2008 at 6:20 pm
6,500 chairs! It takes about 2 days to put up and 2 hours to take down after the ceremony! We in the department that builds this stuff refer to the graduation stand as the “gallows”. All we need is a hunchback up on the peak of Huntress Hall watching…..
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May 10, 2008 at 10:25 am
Yes, the stand does look a bit like a gallows, now that you mention it! And maybe there is hunchback hiding at the top of haunted Huntress?
I’m always happy to see you start construction since that’s one of several sure-fire signs that the end of the semester is near. (Another is when the divisional Dean distributes course evaluations, and another is when we have the first warm, sunny day with frisbee throwers & sunbathers on the Quad.) But most of all, I just love looking at those chairs. I know it’s a pain to set them up & take them down, but they look so orderly & lovely. And I love the fact that you use chalk-lines to line them up just so. Wonderful work!
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May 11, 2008 at 9:51 am
I think the word “professional” has lost most if not all of its meaning. Back in the day (what a coarse and yet appealing phrase), as I recall, a profession was one of three things: the law; medicine; the clergy.
Now, if someone pays you money to do something, you are a “professional.”
All I recall from graduation ceremonies was the ridiculous costuming and the heat. Mail would have been fine for me.
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Jul 7, 2008 at 2:40 pm
As far as a ‘professional’ photo goes, this is no different than what the pros take….except you need one black chair somewhere in the middle.
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