study abroad application portfolio!

i thought it would be nice to have little blurbs with each image to illustrate how they relate and my progression as an artist. i don't know if i'm making sense, though. is what i'm saying making sense? please tell me. thanks.






spring III
Digital
May 2008
This photograph was made in the second semester of my freshman year at KCAI. It was an assignment for Sherry Sparks' Constructed Realities workshop, which focused on narrative photography. It was during that workshop that I decided to make photography my major.
The image implies a relationship between the two models, creating a narrative presented in a cinematic style.


Justin & Ben at the light table
Color transparency
November 2008
For my first semester in KCAI's photography department, I mainly focused on honing my technical skills. At the same time, I was trying to create “spontaneous narrative” images. I shot my photographs spontaneously with the intention to imply a storyline within a single frame. I continued to compose my shots with a cinematic eye, hoping that this would encourage the impression of narrative.


The Assassination of Anastasia WitbolsFeugen by the Coward Byron Case
Digital collage
February 2009
When given the opportunity to create my own assignment second semester sophomore year, I chose to continue my narrative theme by staging murders that had happened in the area. I chose to use myself as the model for these images.


Oliver's bulbs
Digital
February 2009
At the same time I began creating images that may have an implication of a storyline, but leave questions for the viewer. In this image, I present the viewer with an unusual scene of a boy standing before a tidy row of flower bulbs. It was my intention to give the photograph an air of mystery and room for the imagination of my audience.


living room (from the series egg hunt)
Digital
April 2009
As I continued to explore my ideas and tried to find my place in photography, I began to focus on the personal. In the series egg hunt, I photographed myself in both the house I grew up in and my home at the time, looking for similarities in the spaces and trying to find where it was exactly that I drew my inspiration from. I also began experimenting with longer exposures, lighting, and a diptych format.


New Mexico 1
Salt print from a digital negative
April 2009
In the second semester of my sophomore year I began experimenting with digital negatives and alternative photographic processes. I became interested in the photograph as a print, using a process in which it was impossible to create the exact same image twice. I began considering the possibilities of the digital image after the shutter clicks. The images I chose were very personal to me: photos from my travels through New Mexico. By printing these photos in a unique, one-of-a-kind fashion, I hoped to express the uniqueness of the moment when I took the photograph.


Marguerite's words: Zeitschrift (from the words series)
Digital
May 2009
Influenced by the time and craft required to create salt prints, I wanted to add more process to my image-making. Almost without thought, though probably inspired by my love of language, I began the process of cutting out every word in Sigmund Freud's The Ego and the Id. Once I acquired a large number of words, I began using them as props with models for my photographs. I asked the models to take action with their words, to surround themselves with them and to consume them.


Untitled 1: Stove (collaboration with Austin Buckingham from the series The Manhattan Project)
Digital
May 2009
As my final self-directed project sophomore year, I teamed up with classmate Austin Buckingham to work on The Manhattan Project. The two of us spent a weekend in an old schoolhouse in Manhattan, KS. Using ourselves as models we explored the relationships between ourselves and the space. Using lighting and composition, we created images that again inspired a bizarre and mysterious narrative to the viewer.

Untitled 1: Water

Untitled 1: Projection
from The Manhattan Project show, October 2, 2009
After completion of the Spring 2009 semester, Austin and I continued work on The Manhattan Project in preparation for a show in the Omni Bus Gallery in October of 2009. The two of us continued to explore the possibilities of the digital image, re-thinking its presentation beyond a print in a frame. What resulted was a series of installations that continued to utilize light and space.


...its own making
Digital
September 2009
Our first assignment upon entering the junior year of photography was to “create an image about its own making.” My approach to this assignment was to take long exposures and utilize both a strobe and a spotlight to illuminate my own figure and “paint with light”. The resulting photograph shows the time and movement that occurred when the photograph was being made. I originally chose not to print the image as I felt it was best shown in its original format, on a digital screen.


Perception
Digital composite
October 2009
At this time I began to think of my work beyond the photograph. I began researching ideas of thought and the human psyche and came to form my own theory of human perception. It occurred to me that everything, including photography, is dependent upon the perception of the viewer to form any sort of meaning. I also wanted to convey my own perceptions through my photographs. I created this image to illustrate how humans live within their own minds, creating their own realities in the world around them.


Aaron smoking
Digital
November 2009
I began to experiment further with lighting, composition and exposure time in order to create images that show what exists in this world, but in ways that we can never see it. I explored methods of photographing that were visually disorienting and surreal.


she just _____ because ______ _____. (from the captions series)
Digital composite
November 2009
Inspired by the book Ways of Seeing by John Berger and the writings of Walter Benjamin, I decided to go back to using words and the diptych format, this time as a way to symbolize the plethora of meanings an image can hold. captions is a series of diptychs in which there is a photograph with an implied yet still mysterious narrative, with disorienting lighting and compositions creating questionable realities. The photographs are coupled with text, a sentence with blanks where words are missing. Depending upon the words chosen by the viewer to fill in the blanks, various conclusions and meanings can be drawn from the photograph. As with egg hunt, my murder recreations, and The Manhattan Project, I chose to use myself as the primary model for the photographs.


Alex (from the books series)
Scanned B&W film
December 2009
One of the projects I am currently working on again relates to words and language. It is a series of photographs of people with their books, in their natural habitat without arrangement by the photographer. It is my goal to document the books people keep and how they keep them, in order to make comparisons from person to person. This series is a side project, a work in progress that has the possibility to continue indefinitely.


books: installation (from the books series)
February 2010
Wishing to work with installations again and expand upon my books series, I put together an installation in the photo department's Darrin Gallery. Framed photos from the books series hang on the wall of a small room. A comfortable and inviting old chair sits in a corner, surrounded by books. The viewer is invited to study the books at their leisure in the room, as well as add to the books and request to borrow them. A portfolio of every image from my books series sits amongst the books in the room. My goal with this installation is to bring what is shown in the image in to the physical world, and to encourage the viewer to interact and be a part of the piece.


allusionem
Scan of a silver gelatin print
February 2010
Currently I am working on a project that centers on research. Hoping to develop my own theories of photography, I am researching theories and philosophies of the past. The images I am creating are in response to my findings. I began with Surrealism and am currently focused on the artist Man Ray. In this particular image, I had Man Ray's nude photographs in mind. I utilized the solarisation method, a highly experimental dark room process made famous by Ray. The images that result from solarisation can be unpredictable, creating mysterious, dream-like images. I shot this photograph digitally and used my knowledge of digital negatives from sophomore year to create solarised silver gelatin prints in the dark room. Scanning the print, I wanted to show its irregular edges at an enlarged size. Again, I chose to use myself as the model, a frequent choice which I am beginning to question the meaning of.
I am currently continuing my work with digital negatives and solarised prints with surrealistic themes.