How can images of the private and vulnerable become monumental? How can they inspire? Casey Lee Holden and Nelson Pereira pose those questions in turning their cameras inward—on their own surroundings and on their loved ones—in This Is Really Happening, See?, the first in a yearlong series of Library exhibits curated by students at the Kansas City Art Institute.

Holden and Pereira discuss their works and the ways in which they navigate spaces as photographers, existing within their environments and outside of them simultaneously.

This Is Really Happening, See? runs through April 1 in the Central Library’s Genevieve Guldner Gallery. Curated by Amy Hixson, who is pursuing a degree in painting and art history at KCAI, it is underwritten by the Richard J. Stern Foundation for the Arts and Pam and Gary Gradinger.