What is the earliest influence on your interest in photography? When my Dad first immigrated to America and got a stable job, he spent his first paycheck on the Canon A-1 camera around 1980. I admired how photography became a hobby of his when he was young because without it, I would not have the family photographs to enjoy such as my parents and the baby pictures of my sister and I. Since then, he has passed on all of his camera equipment to me. Though my interest in photography did not happen until junior year of high school, I believe my dad’s interest in photography as a hobby gave me my first exposure to what I study today.
- What sparked your interest in photography during junior year? In junior year, I had no idea what I was going to study in college, or what college I would even attend. While I was halfway through with junior year, a close family pet named Joey, who I pretty much grew up with and took care of, was going to be put to sleep due to old age and health problems. Prior to finding out, I photographed Joey a lot with a point and shoot camera throughout the years. Though giving up Joey was the most difficult thing I faced, the photos that I took of him meant so much my cousin. It was then I realized how much meaning a photograph could have.
What genre of photography are you most interested in? I find a fascination in constructed photography, in which the the photographer took time to construct something in the scene. I enjoy the work, effort and process that artist put into making work that incorporates the construction of materials that was nothing, but just materials. Though photography can be the central body of the work, it shows that there is a creative and thought process involved beyond just photographing.
Thomas Demand
James Casabere
Vik Muniz
What are the conceptual, aesthetic, and/or technical questions you’re exploring in your work? One of the questions that I have been constantly exploring and asking myself in my work is, “what happens when the subject is removed?” Conceptually, the removal of the subject allows for the viewer to question who and what is there and why was it removed. Technically and aesthetically, I have been physically hole-punching the negatives of the subject along with using the Photoshop to completely take out the information of what defines the object.
What influences beyond photography are below the surface of your work? Lately, I have been inspired by films that are known for their cinematography. In my studio work, I have been trying to incorporate lighting, and most importantly color, to create an effect on the viewer. By watching films and studying the use of light, I hope to create work that has a cinematic feel to it, but has a concept at the same time. This goes back to what genre of photography I am most interested in, as I try to use this interest in constructing these movie scenes.
- What films have you been watching? Though I choose films known for cinematography overall, I have been watching films by famous directors. I have been watching a lot of films directed by Wong Kar Wai. For a list of movies I have been watching, check out: http://vickithai.com/filmstill/.
Inspired by a film still form the movie Chungking Express directed by Wong Kar Wai.
How do these influences appear in the form, content, and concepts of your work? (Cite example) I started utilizing cinematic qualities in my work at the end of last semester in my studio and light class. I was interested in the meaning of color and how color could create certain moods. Using Barbie’s as the subject, I wanted to create a mood that you wouldn’t normally get from looking at Barbie’s along with personifying the objects. I was interested in Barbie as the subject because when you think of Barbie’s, you normally think toys, toys which are made for children and are meant to provide leisure, which is normally a positive feeling.
Discuss the cultural, social, and political forces influencing photo artists of your generation. Photo artists of my generation, more specifically, students and classmates at Parsons are influenced a lot by who they are and where they come from. The works that I find to be most successful are very personal and relates to struggles between gender and religion and family. Aside from the cultural aspects, people are influenced by the current events of the world, socially and politically speaking. A lot of the work has been about the environment and the urban spaces and how these spaces are affected by the industrialization of the planet. Another force that influences artist is the politics of the homosexual and immigration. In the 21st century and as a photo artist, I think we are mostly influenced by forces which shape who we are, and by making work about this, we are able to express ourselves visually.
How do these forces appear in the form, content, and concepts of their work? (Cite an example) A classmate of mine’s work is based a lot on who she is and how she is accepted in society. Her work explores coming from a culture which has so much expectations for being a female and her struggle and values towards it. She is able to express herself in the form of tableau photography. She becomes the performer behind the camera and depicts scenarios in which it is noticeable that she is being suppressed by her family and her culture. An example being sitting partially nude in a room with her brothers presence, or still life’s of her brothers portraits, shown next to a shattered frame of her portrait. Lately, she started doing more video work in which you see two videos next to each other. One video is of her mom dressing her with traditional clothing, while the other one is of her burning this traditional dress. As a result, there is a juxtaposition of what society and her culture expects from her and her beliefs.
How have computers affected your production in photography and relationship to analog tools? As someone who believes in shooting film and printing in the darkroom, I see computers as a way to display my work. From the process of shooting film and having the ability to scan all my negatives, it makes it easier for my work to become accessible through the web for others. Going deeper in how computers have affected my work, I don’t think I took advantage of what Photoshop was capable of until the first semester of sophomore year. In one of projects, I was inspired with how furniture catalogues created this sense of elegant lifestyle which presented people with the desire to have such perfect homes. Using photography, I started cutting out images from catalogues, tracing and cutting them which I then shot against plexi-glass to create a silhouette which I then shot. The results were far from what I expected because of the imperfections of the cutouts. Photoshop allowed me to present my ideas more clearly than and as well as technically pleasing. Using images that I saved from sites such as Ikea, Crate & Barrel and Pottery Barn, I created ‘vectors’ of these images using the pen tool. The end result was black silhouettes on a white background. Aside from being able to create interiors of the home freely, but it presented the idea of shape and form, and how these objects do not become objects of desire because they lack all qualities that define it as a consumer item, such as color, material, patterns and surface.
To learn more about this project, go HERE.
If you ARE meeting your potential at Parsons what is the most dramatic evidence you can offer? What I have learned at Parsons is that you get what you give. My earliest shift in the way I saw photography happened in Freshman Seminar. I realized that when I shot for assignments, I was mostly shooting what I saw and things around me with no purpose to convey any meaning of any sort. My professor, Simone Douglas, pushed me to find a meaning in what a shot, reasoning behind it and seeing beyond what is there. My work dramatically changed from being meaningless and random, to concept based and creating narratives.
- What did I shoot that had no meaning? For example, one of the assignments was a “Day in the Life” We had to document an object throughout the day. I documented my headphones by hanging it on subway poles and attempted to create a narrative of a pair of headphones and a person. Why I hung my headphones on the subway pole? I don’t even know. It seemed cool… too bad my teacher didn’t think it was. The strongest image from the project was the one where I created an interesting tension between the person, the headphones and environment. The image seemed surreal.
- What was your narrative? I began using personal experiences as an outlet for work. In my final project titled “Candyland,” I was inspired by classical stories of Alice in Wonderland and the board game Candyland. Using the concept of imagination, I fueled both ideas and created a narrative of a person moving between two worlds. Through the presentation of size and the use of selective color, I aided the viewer in understanding and differentiating between reality and fantasy.
What has been your experience as a student at Parsons, and is it what you expected? Being a student at Parsons has been quite stressful. I have gotten what has been most beneficial to me in my core classes whether it be from critiques or class discussions. Critiques and feedbacks from professors and students has been a main influence in my work. It’s always helpful to have someone speak about your work, and through that, something new might come out of it. Class discussions have exposed new ideas and artists to those previously unknown. Allan McCollum is an example of an artist’s whose work I resemble.
Allan McCollum
What are some of the challenges being a student at Parsons in 2010? The central challenge would be time. With the required credits that we have to take, I find it difficult, but manageable to have school and work responsibilities at the same time. Though not having a job might make everything easier, without a job, I would be unable to pay for school supplies. I think I speak for everyone when I say the price of Parsons is ridiculous and it will continue to increase in the future as more people enter the school.
What goals, fears and/or anxieties do you have for your professional life beyond Parsons? Beyond Parsons, I want to wait a couple years before going back to school to get a masters degree. As of now, I am unsure of what I want to pursue in the future or where, but I know I want to use it to further explore photography. With my time between, I want to find a job, but I fear finding a job I will be content with. I also fear being unable to make work without receiving critical and helpful critiques when not in school. My main goal is to be happy with where I am and what I am doing with my life.
What is/are the most important lesson(s) you have learned from this class? The most important lesson that I have learned from this class is that your success in the art world is not dependent on what your work is about or how it is executed. Aside from the fact that photography is so subjective, your success in the art world depends on who you know. Another lesson that I have learned from this class in relation to the art world, is that the art world is made of many subcultures that have their own definition of what art is and how they view it as. Before entering this class, I felt technology was the devil of photography, but now I am realizing and taking advantages of how photography has come to revolutionize the medium.
What makes photography art? In the 21st century, photography is art because anything can be done to it and with it. With the new technology that has emerged, photography has become such a flexible medium that it does not require a camera. Photography does not have to be the image that is solely produced by the camera; instead, it can be any type of visual imagery that has been created. In a music video by Radio – House of Cards, the entire video was created without the use of cameras or lighting, but with the use of data objects which produced the final visuals for it. Though photography can be imagery that is not created solely by the camera, photography is art because it does not have to be created by the modern day, contemporary, professional photographer. A photograph produced by the amateur photographer who owns a point and shoot is considered photography as well. In response to the September 11th attacks, an exhibition titled Here is New York: a Democracy of Photographs was held in Manhattan. The show was a collective of images from the tragedy and the works of both amateur and professional photographers were on display. This showed that amateur photography is capable of being displayed in galleries and that it does not require. While it seems the ideas around photography are cyclical, photography has been a response to history. Throughout the semester, photography has responded to all the social changes that occurred and debated whether photography should have any meaning beyond the formal aspects of the photograph. Photography is art because it challenges our ability to find a new way to respond to what has already been expressed by the many photographers out there.
What Makes Photography Art 