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- ItemOpen AccessRocio Contreras: capstone(2023) Contreras, Rocio, artistThe artist's statement: The human experience is a complex and unique experience full of ebbs and flows that is centralized on the individual. Sharing these individual perspectives is what has proven to me to be one of the most crucial parts of humanity. Without our experiences, what are we? Through my time I have found many avenues of expressing my experiences and viewpoints. Whether that is through poetry, performing or visual art, self expression has been a cornerstone in the creation of my work. I am extremely passionate in photography as it has a remarkable ability to encapsulate a version of reality while providing the viewer with a space to create their own narrative. My emphasis in portrait photography is directly tied to my need for interaction with different perspectives. The DSLR camera with a 50mm lens is my tool of choice as it provides a comfortable setting for my subject without losing the closeness and intimacy in my photographs. Digital printing is my preferred avenue as it provides a higher localized attention to detail, allowing me to be able to accommodate my subject's specific needs. My work is a reflection of my life as it follows themes of immigration, queerness, activism, and loss. As part of my thesis I looked into the concept of identity and growth within the LGBTIA+ community. Many times we are put into categories used to describe how palatable we are to other people. "Duality" talks about the presence of both aspects of a personality without the need to pick one over the other. We are both.
- ItemOpen AccessGrace Baldwin: capstone(2023) Baldwin, Grace, artistThe artist's statement: I've been making photographs since I was in elementary school, capturing memories of my friends, the things we did together, and the places we went. I ended up being an honorary member of the yearbook in middle school because I took hundreds of pictures of the people around me, and joined the yearbook officially in high school so that my endless photo-taking of my friends wouldn't just be for selfish reasons. My love for taking photographs of people only grew when I tried focusing with an artistic lens, and I started seeing the beauty in every part of a person. With the use of double exposure, someone’s face could be mixed with flowers, with the right lens I could capture the intricacies of an iris and the galaxy it contains; and I could show people how I saw them. That's my biggest motivator: to capture the beauty I see in others and have them see it too. My most recent body of work focuses on the body. All participants are asked, "What's your favorite feature on your body, and what's a feature on your body that you think is really interesting?" Often, we focus on the things we don't like about our bodies, but they're all so beautiful. Every body is so incredibly unique, and yet we are all the same. Some of the elements I've captured are rotting teeth, a stray piece of gravel embedded in a knee, the curve of a back, the most gorgeous eyes I've ever seen, and the unique growth pattern of an eyebrow. While I photograph plenty of other subjects besides people in my day-to-day life, people mean so much to me and are so complex that I don't think I'll ever have my fill of capturing the beauty of them. People say no two snowflakes are the same, and that goes for people too. The beauty is: though different, we're all made of stardust and water.
- ItemOpen AccessLogan Causey: capstone(2023) Causey, Logan, artistThe artist's statement: Carl Jung is a psychoanalyst whose ideas and writings primarily deal with the symbology of dreams, the unconscious, and using both to learn more about oneself; Jung's notions have strongly impacted my approach to image-making. Similar to psychoanalysis, my work centers around the theme of exploration and uncovering the hidden, which is typically dismissed or forgotten about. My images are strongly connected to domestic spaces that are not seen as having conventional appeal or beauty, they are off the beaten path and must be deliberately pursued to be found. Analog image-capture is an extremely significant aspect of my work as it emphasizes process and encourages a multi-layered methodology when making photographs, this extra focus on process is significant to my work as it is linked to Carl Jung's process of individuation.
- ItemOpen AccessRichardson Trinity: capstone(2022) Richardson, Trinity P., artistThe artist's statement: Photography has always been an interest of mine. In middle school I used my phone to take pictures of pretty flowers, the results were not necessarily good, but it was the process that I loved and the feeling of capturing a single moment in time that can’t be recreated, it gave me a feeling of satisfaction and excitement. I believe it is what I am meant to do. My work means the world to me, while I started off taking pictures of things I thought were pretty, like flowers and buildings, I am at a place now where I want to document the unseeable. I am interested in entering the minds of the viewers through my photographs. I take photographs of interior spaces in a way to show the personality of the inhabitant can be seen without them actually there. I photograph memory-like scenes in hopes to remind others of their own memories, even though they're just looking at mine. A lot of my work comes from a place of wanting to connect with other people through memories and personalities. I am interested in the social aspects of society and like experimenting with that. My process always begins with an idea and completely changes by the end. Through multiple sessions of photographing for a series, my idea changes throughout and I end up with a different outcome. This is great for me though because it gives me new ideas to work with all the time. My latest body of work is inspired by the personal spaces of an individual and what it can say about their personality. A lot can be said about a person through the way they decorate their home.
- ItemOpen AccessDillon King: capstone(2022) King, Dillon, artistThe artist's statement: My name is Dillon King and I'm a photographer. My focus is based around the narrative or the storytelling ability an image has. I use a combination of elements including color and complex composition to assist the viewer in finding an emotive response. A few artists I look towards are Nan Goldin, Gordon Parks, Gregory Crewdson, Robert Capa, and Eddie Adams for their ability to show stories. With the age of social media, we are fed images over and over again that are shallow in both focus and meaning. While a shallow focus, used properly, has the ability to show us the depths of emotion, I chose to primarily use a wider range of focus to bring in more elements for storytelling. If the image contains a human figure, we are given more potential narrative with every new object we can see clearly. Within an image that doesn't contain a human figure, I aim to give enough information for deduction of the objects interplay within the frame. I choose to primarily use digital image capturing as it gives more potential for color. Color, a primary focus of my artistic technique, has a profound ability to direct a story due to its association with emotion. Digital gives me more manipulatable information to begin with. My focus is based around the storytelling ability an image has. I use a combination of elements including color and complex composition to assist the viewer in finding an emotive response, leading the audience to fabricate a story for themselves. Each image is intentionally unrelated for this reason.