Claire Evans, a photographer born and based in Fresno, had her art featured in the “Sacrifice Zone” Exhibition Opening at the Fresno City College Art Space Gallery on Nov. 13. Her photos will continue to be displayed there until Jan. 29.

This was an emotional and exciting moment for Evans.

“I was really happy, and I felt really honored that I was able to present my work in that way,” Evans said.

According to Evans, exhibitions like this influence our community in a positive light, and they can motivate others.

“I hope people can step away from it and feel like they can do something like this in Fresno,” Evans said.

According to the program of the exhibition, there is a sense of stillness in many of Claire Evans’ photographs of Fresno and the surrounding areas.

Evans has a personal connection with some of the pictures, like “Morning Fog.”

“My grandma used to ask the fallen leaves permission to take them home, and she’d pick them up, complimenting their colors and shape,” Evans wrote in the exhibition program. “I fully believed the conversations had between my great grandma and the leaves, due to her admiration and intention with each one. She smiled wide at the ground beneath us and all of her friends smiled back.”

Evans was surprised and absolutely satisfied with the quality of the exhibition, and she was so proud of her works.

“I was surprised that it just looked really beautiful, and I was really honored to be a part of this,” Evans said.

A lot of people visited this exhibition and showed great interest in Evans’ art. 

“I think it’s just wonderful,” Kevin Evans, Claire’s father, said.

FCC art instructor Ricardo Rivera was surprised by the large attendance of the exhibition.

“My first impression was ‘whoa’, there’s a lot of people, so it’s nice to see a gallery that is full,” Rivera said.

According to Elena Harvey Collins, the curator of the Art Space Gallery and art history instructor at FCC, this exhibition influenced our community positively, and it is so important for us.

“I think exhibitions like this help to create a sense of community by reflecting people’s lived realities, and I always hope that the gallery can be a place where students, the campus community and the local community can come and feel welcome,” Collins said.

There were a lot of pictures that caught the attention of visitors.

According to Collins, a big challenge was choosing which images to put on the wall out of lots of really wonderful images.

Two of the pictures that caught visitors’ attention were “Kiwi at Susland” and “Wrestle.”

“There’s two of them that I saw next to each other,” Rivera said. “What really stands out for me in the images, is there seems to be a search for trying to understand diversity, specifically diversity of different cultures, different upbringing.”

According to Rivera, “Kiwi at Susland” shows someone who’s dressed up, and “Wrestle” shows two gentlemen that are wrestling.

“One that looks very religious and traditional, and another one looks kind of very testosterone aggressive, so I like that contrast,” Rivera said.

All in all, after viewing the artworks people felt honored and excited.

“I felt a lot of hope and just proud that the maybe underserved are being recognized,” Kevin Evans said.

This exhibition is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. until Jan. 29.