MANKATO — Photographer Josh Madson is part showman, part comedian as he gets subjects to loosen up while he takes photos of them.
“Do a Macaulay Culkin pose,” he tells one young man, who then puts his hands on his cheeks to imitate the scene in the movie “Home Alone.”
“OK, now let’s do that awkward photo with mom,” he tells a mom and her son.
“You’re one handsome guy,” he tells an administrator at Minnesota State University, who posed for Madson as the local photographer collects more pictures of community members for his next Mankato Community Collage project.
On Monday, Madson and his crew were set up at the MSU Centennial Student Union. During this session and another last week at MSU, he took photos of about 500 students and staff.
Madson shot photos of about 900 community members for his first effort, with his photos displayed at the Coffee Hag and then elsewhere. The project was so successful that he began getting requests from other communities to do the same.
His next collage will include photos displayed at MSU and likely at the event center located in The Pond in Mankato.
“We were planning on getting about 2,000 photos this time, but we’re at 2,450 already. I think we’ll get 4,000 this year,” Madson said in between photo shoots Monday.
David Hood, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at MSU, was one of the hundreds who had their photos taken Monday. Madson takes many photos of each person or group and lets them look through the photos afterward and pick the ones they like.
Hood said he saw the first Community Collage after attending an MSU hockey game with MSU President Edward Inch.
“He said you have to see the collage at the Coffee Hag,” Hood said.
“I think it really shows the diversity Mankato has and all the fabrics that make up the community.”
Hood admired Madson’s ability to quickly put people at ease when they might often be tense knowing their photos are being taken.
“His personality is infectious and he lets you let go of anything you’ve been dealing with during the day,” Hood said.
Madson’s collages feature black-and-white portraits.
Throwing together this year’s larger project required planning and some financial help, including grants and community support.
“A lot of people have no idea how much time and energy went into getting this thing off the ground,” he told The Free Press previously. “Not only off the ground but also shot, then laid out, edited and processed, sent to the printer, receiving the prints from the printer, marking them all, designing the inside, putting up the framing for the inside, putting adhesives on the prints — we’re talking thousands of hours.”
Helping with fundraising will be his board, which includes Ann Fee, Tom Lenz and Denny Dotson.