NATCHEZ &8212; Love for the camera was a natural transition for Marcus Frazier. As a child, he was artistic &8212; the kindergarten student a teacher always sought for help with the bulletin board.

He studied minute images in nature as a child. &8220;I stayed in the bushes, where small things caught my eye,&8221; he said &8220;Everything has its own little world if you take time to study it. I was always into nature.&8221;

Now Frazier has turned to photography, and his first exhibit is hanging at the library at the Natchez campus of Copiah-Lincoln Community College, where he completed his associate degree in 2004.

He is now a senior at the University of Southern Mississippi but taking a semester off to work for a few months, he said.

&8220;In January 2005, I had my first photography course at USM,&8221; Frazier said. &8220;That became all I wanted to do. I would go to bed thinking about photography and get up thinking about it.&8221;

His first experience with a camera came in 1997. &8220;I was in the Marine Corps in California, and I&8217;d tell stories about growing up near the river,&8221; he said. &8220;When I&8217;d come home, I&8217;d take photos, mostly around the river, to take back to show my friends.&8221;

Photography classes have given him new direction, Frazier said. He hopes to take his skills and art to new levels, perhaps working with a magazine some day.

A trip in 2005 to Rome, Italy, with a USM study group further piqued his interest, he said. Some of the photos in the exhibit were made during that three-week trip.

His work, both in black and white and in color, centers on people and places. He prefers to work in black and white but has a clear reason for including color photos as well.

&8220;Color shows an aliveness. In modern times, color speaks to youngsters especially,&8221; he said. &8220;In Rome, everything was in color. You see pictures of the ruins mostly in black and white, but Rome in 2005 was alive and in color.&8221;

Frazier finds fulfillment of his artistic talent in photography as in no other art.

&8220;It&8217;s an actual slice of time,&8221; he said. &8220;That&8217;s what I like about it. And much of what I photograph is what is immediately around me. It&8217;s often things people walk right by and don&8217;t notice.&8221;