Photo Exhibit on Sorority Life Opens at UGA This Weekend

Chicago-based photographer Kelly Kristin Jones didn't know much about sororities when she arrived at the University of Georgia for a photography fellowship through the Lamar Dodd School of Art. So she spent the fall learning more about them.

Starting this weekend, she's sharing her unique perspective with the rest of us.

"The sorority subculture was completely new to me, and I have found it infinitely interesting," Jones, whose photography exhibit "The Sorority Girl Project" opens with a free reception on Friday, said on the Dodd School of Art's website. "More than being a critique or investigation of the Southern college sorority girl, the project is really about the gaze and their performance for the camera."

Jones' photos combine elements of portraiture and candid photography and seek to examine both the stereotypes of sorority life and the broader cultural phenomenon she calls the "curation of the self," she told the Athens Banner-Herald.

“I wanted to offer another way of understanding the sorority girl, to break through presumptions,” she told the paper.

The exhibit's opening reception is scheduled for Jan. 11 at 7 p.m. in gallery 101 of the school of art.