Durham, NC - Seven students in the inaugural class of Duke's new master's of fine arts program have work on display on East Campus.

The collection of drawings, videos and photographs on display in the Corridor Gallery of the East Duke Building is a show called "Preoccupations." The works displayed are examples of what absorbs, consumes - preoccupies - the artists.

Lisa McCarty, for example, exhibits photos taken at Lacock Abbey, the home of William Henry Fox Talbot, inventor of the photographic negative.McCarty used a double exposure technique to create her work.

Another student, Wolfgang Hastert, exhibits selections from "JUXTAPOSSE," a series of juxtaposed portraits of Duke faculty and students and the MFA program.

And Laurenn McCubbin exhibits a series of watercolor portraits of sex workers she's interviewed as part of a larger initiative she calls "The Intimacy Project."

Now moving towards its second year, the master's of fine arts in experimental and documentary arts program will soon welcome its second group of students to join the 15 comprising its first class.

The program is unusual among MFA programs in that it demands that students stretch beyond the bounds of their chosen specialty and dabble with all sorts of documentary story-telling styles.

You can read more about the program here.