When did Larry McMillian ’23 first pick up a camera? That’s hard to say. Based on family photos his mom still has, Larry’s best guess is he was 8 years old.

Why is he still in love with the camera all these years later? That’s an easier question to answer. Capturing a moment – a church in Spain, a family gathering in the backyard, a glass and concrete apartment building rising out of Brooklyn – fulfills a part of Larry.

It takes Larry 1/125th of a second to capture a moment for the rest of time. “There’s something about being able to keep the memory forever that I like,” he says. “It’s hard to describe except that when I take a picture of something or someone I like, I’ll always have it with me – either in my mind or my camera.”

Spend a few minutes with Larry talking about photography and it’s evident he loves photography. Spend a few more minutes walking the main hallway of Hege Academic Commons and you’ll see firsthand he’s pretty good at it, too.

See some of Larry McMillian's work on display at Hege.

Larry, a Cyber Network & Security major who will be speaker for the class at Commencement May 13, recently held an exhibit at Hege of his photography work. “Destination,” as the exhibit is called, displays images of French Gothic churches and small villages in Spain, where Larry spent a semester as part of Guilford’s Study Abroad program. Those photos share the same space as images of modern buildings overlooking Baltimore’s Inner Harbor or New York City’s skyline at dusk.

Larry says he wanted to do something to give back to the children who live in the southeast side of Greensboro where he grew up, an area that’s home to several Title I schools and low-income students, some of whom are homeless. He’s started a fund-raising effort in which all donations will go toward creating a Guilford scholarship for a student from Greensboro. 

The name for the exhibit came easy for Larry. “I call it "Destination" because throughout my childhood, I realized that many of my peers in Greensboro weren't always able to travel and explore the world in the same ways that I was,” says Larry. “Oftentimes, they did not know how accessible these places were or that they even existed. The same way that Guilford helped to open my eyes to the world is the same way I want to provide opportunities for high school students in Greensboro.”

Larry has a special place in his heart for students living in eastern Greensboro. “That’s where I grew up,” says Larry. “That's where I see the most struggle in the city, the most pain in the city where we needed to help the most. But we often didn't get it and still don't, so I'm hoping these photos might give them hope when I show them to them.”

President Kyle Farmbry added some photos he took on a trip to Thailand and Malika Moore ‘22 (above right) added pieces of artwork to round out the exhibit.

Larry also hopes his photos, many from his semester in Spain, will show other Guilford students there’s a world out there beyond the College. A lot of my peers weren't able to make those same trips I made,” he says. “I think oftentimes they didn't even know these places existed. I’m hoping my (photography) changes that, changes their perspective.”

“My goal was to capture these images from around the world and kind of use it as a mirror as a window to show all the kids that are in that same position as I was that you can go to these places and that these options are a lot more plausible than they think.”