Richard Bain is looking forward to attending the University of Windsor this year, but he hasn’t registered for a single class yet.

The photographer will spend a year taking pictures of campus life for a book to be published by Binea Press. It will be Bain’s sixth project chronicling an Ontario institution of higher learning, following volumes on Western, McMaster, Guelph, Brock, and Fanshawe College.

“By the time I’m done one of these projects, I almost feel like I went to school there,” he says. “I come to love the schools as much as its students and faculty do.”

He will make about 30 trips to Windsor from his base in London, working to capture day-to-day life on campus as well as the major events like convocation.

Holly Ward, executive director of Public Affairs and Communications, will help to coordinate the book’s publication. It is slated for about 120 pages full of full-colour photography, hardcover bound, printed in Canada using environmentally-friendly inks. She says the project will serve several purposes.

“It’s certainly a celebration of the university and will be available in advance of our 50th anniversary in 2013,” she said. “We hope it will become a keepsake for alumni and stir their memories of their time here, as well as attract new students to our campus. This commemorative book is just one part of a larger plan to celebrate our golden anniversary, but it has the longest lead time so we're excited to get started this fall.”

Bain has already visited Windsor and says he brings a fresh eye to the University.

“I will see things other people walk by and never notice, but by the same token, I may miss some views only an insider can know about,” he says. “If anybody does know a great spot that would make for a super shot, I hope they will let me know.”

He invites students, faculty, staff and grads to suggest photo ideas at binea@rogers.com.