THE IOWA PHOTO: Photographing a concept

Turning concepts and ideas into photographs is one of the biggest challenges of a photographer’s job, particularly when trying to avoid the literal.

I recently was assigned to photograph Bob Campagna of Mount Vernon, who has documented Cornell College students for 18 years and has an upcoming gallery show, “Time Travel,” in Mount Vernon. Photographing a photographer is always a challenge, and I wanted to find a way to incorporate his portrait with the concept of time travel.

A few literal attempts at portraits felt flat, so I experimented with a series of candid double exposures — layering two images on top of each other, either in a camera or with editing software. This photograph is the former.

Earlier, Campagna had said his photograph of the 1986 Cornell College wrestling team after the Division 3 College Wrestling National Championship meet in New York City was one of his favorites.

I took a photo of that photo and layered it on top of a candid photograph of Campagna in front of a stark white gallery wall, which offered a clean background and made both images pop. The result combines the present with the past.