By BECKY GIST

Staff Writer

Mitch Kern, an assistant professor of art, brought his career in photography to a new level this summer in his travel to Balatonfured, Hungary.

Kern, along with 14 other participants around the globe, was chosen out of 500 people to partake in a three-week residency at The Hungarian Multicultural Center.

"I wanted my portraits to allow the people of Balatonfured to be able to celebrate themselves," Kern said.

"Balatonfured is a small village with a population of only 14,000 people." "It is two hours west of Budapest on the banks of Lake Balaton."

Kern said when he got to Balatonfured he started roaming the streets, meeting international people with only his digital camera, laptop, backpack and dictionary.

"The people were very open to me taking pictures of them," Kern said. "I think it was because of my digital camera, which allowed them to see the pictures I had taken. It became a visual language."

Kern said he wanted to show in his portraits that Hungarians are just like Americans.

"I wanted to honor them and picture them with dignity," he said. "I just pointed the camera; without the people, the images wouldn't be possible."

Kern said it was his interaction with the people in his portraits that gave him a theme for his collection.

"I decided what better title for my portraits than La Fotoz Hatom? (May I Take Your Picture?)," he said.

Kern brought his pictures back to the United States and donated one print to the multicultural center.

Kern said he then contacted galleries and set up three solo shows. His 24 portraits will venue at the Biggin Gallery at Auburn University in Alabama, the Sykes Gallery at Millersville University in Pennsylvania and Gallery 1101 at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Ill.

Lindsay Hearn, a junior engineering major, said she lived in Europe for a year and had visited Hungary.

"Seeing Mr. Kern's portraits brought back memories of my stay in Europe," Hearn said. "I respect him for going to a foreign place where he doesn't know the language or culture and has to adapt because I know how tough that can be from experience."

Hearn said it says a lot for Tech to have someone on faculty who is willing to take chances and experience new methods.

"Mitch produces very fine quality work and [his travel to Hungary] will certainly help him in his career," Dean Dablow, director of the School of Art, said. "Plus, the name Louisiana Tech will be associated with a program of that caliber."

Kern said he loves new cultures and traveling.

"I think I caught the cultural bug," he said. "Learning languages, food and customs from scratch makes me very happy."

Kern said in the future he would like to do this again but perhaps somewhere like Japan, Iceland or Africa.

"I want to build bridges between cultures and teach people to love one another globally," Kern said. "I feel that this is my small part in that process."