From the color of the frame to the position of the label to the overall layout design every detail must be considered. Curating an art exhibition requires both creativity and precision. For senior art history major Nadiah Fellah, composing the photography exhibition “Facing America: Portraits of the People and the Land” was a unique challenge that allowed her to work with the Allen Memorial Art Museum’s actual collection.

“It was the most demanding and stressful thing that I’ve ever done,” said Fellah, “But it was the most rewarding, too. It was exciting to work as closely with the museum’s collection as I did. As an undergrad, you don’t get the opportunity curate very often.”

Fellah, who currently serves as a curatorial assistant at the Allen and works with Curator of Western Art Stephen Borys, was responsible for deciding which works would be included in the post-1930s photography exhibition, which would be composed entirely of pieces from the Allen’s own collection.

Every year, Borys selects different students to work with him at the museum, assisting him with various research and exhibition projects.“Each student brings a different strength or skill set to the museum experience, and I do my best to match projects to their talents and interests. When I hired Nadiah to work at the museum last fall, I immediately thought of the photography show as a project that would interest and challenge her as an art historian,” said Borys.

As a student curatorial assistant, Fellah had the opportunity to work with Borys and then eventually curate the exhibit on her own. She was responsible for selecting the pieces to be included in the exhibition and designing its layout, as well as the other smaller, but equally important tasks such as writing the texts that accompany the pieces.

“Early on in her research for the exhibition last fall, Nadiah really took over the project. The selection, presentation and documentation of the works in the show are largely to Nadiah’s credit and excellent work,” Borys said.

The work that Fellah took on was neither a small nor simple process.

“I had 200 to 250 works to look through, trying to find a theme and to create a comprehensive show with a basic thesis,” she said. “By November, I had narrowed it down to 100 [pieces] which led me close [to the show which] is now about 75 pieces. It was amazing to have access to a collection as diverse and awesome as Allen’s collection is.”

Finding the thesis for the exhibition, the theme that would unite the photographs, offered Fellah an opportunity to learn more about the art of photography itself, in which she had been very interested.

“It was hard starting from scratch in the curating and my knowledge of the medium,” she said, “but I [spent] months researching photography as a medium and how these American photos that span the century tie to society and history.”

The photographs in the exhibition fall into four categories: single portraiture, group portraiture, landscape and still life. Themes within these recurring groups show the transition from the optimistic ideal that pervaded photographs of the ’30s and ’40s, portraying America in a positive light, to the photographs of ’50s and ’60s which broke precedent by depicting American society in less elegant ways.

“You can see the change in the photograph and what it represented in American society,” said Fellah.

As the collection spans the last 75 years in American photography, the exhibition is comprehensive.

“It touches on many of the themes, issues and triumphs of this art form in the United States,” said Borys. “In some ways, the show mirrors developments in this country over the last century. Included in the exhibition are several recent acquisitions, which will allow the visitor to see new work from the permanent collection.”

The exhibition, which opens Saturday and will run through Sept. 3, is displayed in the Allen’s Ripin Print Gallery. Not only does it serve as a wide study of American culture, but is also serves as a remarkable culmination of one student’s art studies at Oberlin.