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BLUFFTON’S EARLY YEARS DEPICTED IN PHOTO EXHIBIT

Bluffton University will host an exhibition of the work of Will Triplett, a photographer in Bluffton from 1881-1934, as part of the village’s sesquicentennial celebration. Free and open to the public, the exhibition will open Sunday, June 12, in the Grace Albrecht Gallery of the university’s Sauder Visual Arts Center with a reception from 2-4 p.m.

Triplett, a Newark, Ohio, native, was born the same year as Bluffton—1861—and moved to the village by the time he was 20. Over the next 53 years, until his death in 1934, he practiced his art during a transformational period when wet-plate photography gave way to dry plates and then to film-based media, becoming a prominent photographer in the region along the way.

Triplett’s grandson, Ropp Triplett of Bluffton, recalls a family camping trip to California where a campground operator recognized the family name and produced her wedding photo, which Will Triplett had taken years before.

His work also endures in the exhibit, which includes a history of photography as well and continues through July 2. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Saturday and 1-5 p.m. Sundays, or by appointment.

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Bluffton public relations, 6/6/11