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A Kenyon College Senior Session

By: Vicki Sands

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Vicki Sands Photography | Columbus, Ohio Senior Photographer

There's a particular kind of light that settles over Gambier, Ohio in early May, the kind that filters through a tree canopy a mile long and makes everything underneath it look like it's already a memory. That's where I spent the morning with Walt, a few days before his graduation from Kenyon College.

Walt's family is from Chicago. He's now home for the summer before heading to California this fall, and his mom booked this session as a way to hold onto exactly who he is right now, before that next shift happens. A few weeks ahead of the session, I spent a morning walking the campus with Walt himself, and he showed me the places that actually mattered to him rather than the ones that simply photograph well. Everything below came out of that walk.

I started in the village. Coffee from Wiggin Street Coffee, his reflection caught in the window glass. This was one I'd specifically wanted to capture: an image meant to be noticed, not posed. A morning started in reflection.

Young man in navy blazer reflected in coffee shop window holding a cup at Wiggin Street Coffee Kenyon College Gambier Ohio senior photographer

A few steps later, walking past the Kenyon College Bookstore, he glanced back over his shoulder mid-stride, half already looking ahead to whatever comes next, half still right here in Gambier. Caught in the moment.

Senior walking Gambier glancing back Kenyon College Bookstore color senior photographer

From there, Middle Path. If you know Kenyon, you know this is the place: the tree-lined spine of the whole campus, the walk every student takes a thousand times without thinking about it until the very last one. I slowed down for it. Walt in his navy blazer, the green closing in overhead, the path stretching out ahead of him.

Young man in navy blazer walking under tree canopy on Middle Path at Kenyon College Gambier Ohio college senior photographer

I found my way to two places that meant more than any backdrop could: Ascension Hall and Chalmers Library, where Walt actually spent most of his time at Kenyon. Not staged, not scouted for how they'd photograph, just true.

Ascension Hall's stone tower behind him, the building he passed almost every day. Inside, he settled onto a worn leather couch by the window, one portrait pulling back to take in the room around him, another pulling in close, just his face and the quiet he carried into every corner of that building.

Young man smiling leaning against stone wall near Ascension Hall black and white Kenyon College Gambier Ohio college senior photographer
Senior close portrait arms crossed chair back Ascension Hall black and white Kenyon College senior photographer
Senior seated leather couch Ascension Hall window light black and white Kenyon College senior photographer

Chalmers Library in black and white: the long wooden tables, the quiet, the light through the windows. But the building holds more than one mood. On the stairwell leading up toward the smaller study pods, where students actually tuck themselves away to work, Walt sat with arms crossed and that easy, direct smile, a warmer, more social side of the same building.

Ascension Hall and Chalmers Library were where his college years actually happened, and it felt more honest to photograph him there than to invent a version of Kenyon he never lived in.

College senior guy seated in library reading room Chalmers Library Kenyon College Gambier Ohio senior photographer
enior seated stairwell Chalmers Library arms crossed casual color Kenyon College senior photographer

Some of the best parts of the day had nothing to do with the camera. More than once, on the scouting morning and again on session day, a professor would stop mid-walk to ask Walt about his final project, or where he was headed next. He answered every time with an ease that only comes from four years of actually being known somewhere. It told me more about who he is than any pose could have.

As we continued on The Church of the Holy Spirit gave me my quietest frames: stone, arched doors, stained glass.

Just past it, a set of sculpted angel musicians stands over the lawn in front of Rosse Hall, the kind of detail that stopped me in my tracks before the camera ever came up.

Young man in navy blazer standing on path in front of Church of the Holy Spirit steeple at Kenyon College Gambier Ohio college senior photographer
Young man in navy blazer seated at Church of the Holy Spirit doorway Kenyon College Gambier Ohio college senior photographer
Young man walking path across lawn in front of Rosse Hall framed by angel musician sculptures at Kenyon College Gambier Ohio college senior photographer

We also made a stop at Old Kenyon: what students have long called Old K, one of the college's most iconic buildings, anchoring the south end of Middle Path. It felt like the right place to pause, one last recognizable landmark before everything that comes next.

Senior standing front of Old Kenyon jacket over shoulder color Kenyon College senior photographer

One bench along Middle Path gave us something else entirely: Walt leaned back, feet up, looking somewhere past the trees, four years behind him and something bigger just starting to take shape.

That something bigger was only days away. As a nod to graduation coming that weekend, Walt had already picked up his cap and gown, so we brought it out to the quad for a few frames.

Graduate smiling with arms crossed leaning against a tree trunk at Kenyon College Gambier Ohio college senior photographer

But the very last frame I made was quieter than that: Walt in his navy corduroy jacket and khakis, walking Middle Path the same way he had a thousand times over four years, the same path that had stretched out ahead of him when this all began. Not a graduate in this one. Just Walt, doing the thing he'd always done, one more time.

Young man in navy corduroy jacket walking away down Middle Path at Kenyon College Gambier Ohio college senior photographer

This is what a Kenyon College senior session looks like when it's built around a real place and a real person, rather than a generic backdrop. Walt heads to California this fall, a long way from Gambier, and from Chicago too, but these images will be the ones that hold this exact chapter in place.

Sessions like this are also a reminder that I'm available for travel. This one was photographed on location in Gambier, Ohio, and I'm happy to talk through what that could look like wherever your senior's story is actually unfolding. If you're a Columbus-area family with a senior heading toward, or away from, a campus like this one, this is exactly the kind of story I love to tell.

Here's another senior session built around a passion, piano and chess instead of a place. Same belief either way: build the session around what actually matters to your senior, whether that's a place they love or something they've spent years dedicated to.

Read the full session here

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