For those students graduating in the fall, it is important to polish all marketable talents for maximum employability. Photo-taking is an art that anyone can look at taking to a professional level with passion and a little guidance.

Offering that guidance is Center for Fine Art Photography Director Hamidah Glasglow.

“I fly around the country doing portfolio reviews, and people pay a significant amount of money for those reviews,” Glasglow said.

But here in Fort Collins, at the Center for Fine Art Photography, Glasglow brings her exciting connections and expertise without charge to Center members and anyone in the community.

“She’s brought that amazing opportunity for students to go and hear talks with jurors and people that are from New York galleries that we wouldn’t even have a chance to meet or hear or get advice from,” said artist Katie Kalkstein.  “I think that’s a great opportunity that she has brought to Fort Collins.”

Kalkstein is one artist who has benefited from the juror reviews at the Center, as well as from the Glasgow’s connections and support.

“Both myself and the jurors offer free reviews for the artists that are in the shows,” Glasglow said. “Katie was in the show, and we had a review together and, since her artwork has been growing and expanding, she’s been winning all kinds of awards, not only here, but in Denver and organizations in Oregon. So that’s really exciting to see the growth of her work and her work being shown all over. ”

Kalkstein says her success is due to the initial review and ultimate support Glasglow offered.

“She’s very generous in her time and she’s given me such wonderful input and advice that’s helped my career along even in the short amount of time,” Kalkstein said. “I can’t imagine where I’d be (without it), so I can’t thank her enough for that.”

Glasglow hasn’t workshopped any CSU students yet, but she says she would love to.

“We are here to serve artists and to serve the community, and so CSU students we welcome to come to shows (and) to make appointments to meet with us, absolutely,” Glasglow said.

Glasglow connects with artists of all different specialties.

“I’ve had commercial photographers, I’ve had more landscape photographers who are interested in selling their work at art fairs,” Glasglow said. “It isn’t my forte, but for those people I can point them into directions that maybe they hadn’t thought about, or (tell them about) venues that I know of that sell that kind of work. I can give them suggestions of who to contact.”

Collegian A&E Writer Sierra Cymes can be reached at entertainment@collegian.com or on Twitter @sierra_cymes.