The Rit Big Shot

An ongoing nighttime community photography project now 35 years and counting, the RIT Big Shot annually invites hundreds of participants to collaborate in making over-sized photographs of scenes of interest. Described as a "painting with light," local photography enthusiasts "paint" or shine their light sources onto a particular area of the subject while RIT photographers make an extended exposure. Begun by RIT Professors Michael Peres and Bill DuBois in 1987, Big Shot photographers have captured such sites as Kodak Tower (Rochester, N.Y.), Churchill Downs (Louisville, Ky.), AT&T (formerly Cowboys) Stadium (Arlington, Texas), and the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian (Washington, D.C.). Internationally, the Big Shot team photographed Pile Gate in Dubrovnik, Croatia, and the Royal Palace in Stockholm, Sweden.