Modest Memoirs
Modest Memoirs explores the life and adventures of The nameless and faceless figures we too often see as place holders in model train stations and under the beds of children covered in dust. The inspiration for this concentration stems back to childhood. When I would play with toys and not others i would always feel bad for the ones that i left. I can remember thinking how sad they must be to not be played with. I remember seeing each toy with its own life outside of just playing with me. I wanted to capture that feeling, that wanderlust and pure imagination. I decided to create a story within this series itself as well as each picture containing its own. The first few photos capture the every day hustle and bustle of this miniature world and with the introduction of image six we see a slow transition from the everyday life into the fantasy story book aspect with image seven and eight featuring little people discovering and traveling into the pages of books. The Macro mushroom shot creates a break from these more real world situations into a more fantastic and surreal setting, after this break I wanted to play more with the situations the imagination of my childhood self would create. These images Capture more of a whimsical adventurous tone that leave the viewer on edge allowing for the ability of the viewer to create their own stories. My strongest image I think would have to be Image number 12 or On The Edge. This image uses rule of thirds leaving the woman in the right third and the mushroom creating a false horizon line In the bottom third of the Image. this creates motion and a dynamic composition within the photograph. The intention of this photo was to create a sense of longing and hope a story of a woman who wanted more in life. I placed the woman on the edge of the mushroom to show how shes on the edge of something bigger than herself. I think my personal voice comes out strongly in this Image because of the amount of effort and setting up that went into it, this was one of my first macro images that I took not just because I thought it might look cool but because I knew it would tell a story to people of all ages and captivate people as much as these figures captivate me. My weakest photo in this series in my opinion is either Image 13 or 14, neither of them are very engaging to the viewer and they don't have quite as strong a composition and narrative as the others. Another reason i don't enjoy 14 in particular is the fact that I used a well known character and not a generic miniature for that image, although both images were key in my exploration of this concentration they both lacked in story and composition.
ELUSION
Throughout history Kaleidoscopes and kaleidoscopic images have been a symbol of escape in time of difficulty and self doubt.
This symbol and series couldn't be more on point for my experience while making this concentration. Through painstaking trial and error and lots of difficulty and self doubt that this kaleidoscope lens created it truly tested me as an artist and taught me that if first you don't succeed than try and try again. This concentration, while not being my most technically sound all the way through, I think truly captures my growth as an artist I chose to set up my pictures in chronological order to document the different techniques, subjects, and lenses throughout this experience each time learning and adapting to the new circumstances and challenges brought with this self made lens extension. The inspiration of this concentration was experimentation and altering photos without using software. It also came to me when looking through a children's toy which I found in Saver's. Looking through this network of mirrors and convex lenses, mundane shelves and aisles turned into beautiful mandalas. It inspired me to look at it through the lens of a camera taking photos of every day objects turning them into shapes and patterns that resemble stain glass windows in an old cathedral more than they resemble themselves. Making art of the ordinary. Through this process I realized that I'd rather work without editing software, only using my camera and my creativity, and fail than use it and sacrifice authenticity. My strongest image is the last one in the concentrations the reflection and lens flares creates dreamlike imagery. For this image I used an 85 mm lens which due to its tight zoom blurs out the edges of the kaleidoscope blending reality and its opposite. instead of the harsh disconnect from reality and reflection we can see in my two weakest photos of the food coloring.
This symbol and series couldn't be more on point for my experience while making this concentration. Through painstaking trial and error and lots of difficulty and self doubt that this kaleidoscope lens created it truly tested me as an artist and taught me that if first you don't succeed than try and try again. This concentration, while not being my most technically sound all the way through, I think truly captures my growth as an artist I chose to set up my pictures in chronological order to document the different techniques, subjects, and lenses throughout this experience each time learning and adapting to the new circumstances and challenges brought with this self made lens extension. The inspiration of this concentration was experimentation and altering photos without using software. It also came to me when looking through a children's toy which I found in Saver's. Looking through this network of mirrors and convex lenses, mundane shelves and aisles turned into beautiful mandalas. It inspired me to look at it through the lens of a camera taking photos of every day objects turning them into shapes and patterns that resemble stain glass windows in an old cathedral more than they resemble themselves. Making art of the ordinary. Through this process I realized that I'd rather work without editing software, only using my camera and my creativity, and fail than use it and sacrifice authenticity. My strongest image is the last one in the concentrations the reflection and lens flares creates dreamlike imagery. For this image I used an 85 mm lens which due to its tight zoom blurs out the edges of the kaleidoscope blending reality and its opposite. instead of the harsh disconnect from reality and reflection we can see in my two weakest photos of the food coloring.
Vault Of Heaven
This series entails two separate concentrations from over the summer of shots of celestial objects and the other of long exposure firework shots. I decided to mesh the two and use the fireworks as abstractions of space. by using color and shape I selected which images I thought worked best together and pretty much made four miniseries within this concentration each one starting with a concrete image and as the images continue they fall further into abstraction resembling something you'd see in space.