Category: Final Projects

A letter to my scars:

You are no secret, and you are out in the open for all to see. As a teenager, it has been a long and tiring journey learning to love and accept you for all you are. Now, being almost two years since I have known you, I have come to be proud of these you for you have become a part of who I am. Without your presence, I would be a very different person. You are representative of what I have gone through and who I have flourished into because of you. So thank you, scars, for I have found serendipity in the havoc you brought have me.

 

There is a part in the human brain that is specifically made for recognizing faces. My idea behind these photos was to deconstruct the conventional aspects of the face to a point where they become almost unrecognizable. I began with the more detectable features of the face, and then worked my way down to the more indistinct features. By doing this, I have broken the barrier between what we know and what we think we know about the human face. I reorganized the automatic cognitive response that comes with recognizing faces. By doing this I created images that look like something other than what they are. Is it a nose? An ear? A crease? Your mind can decide. Despite them being abstracted versions of facial features, they still maintain their humane qualities.

Born: November 3, 1903

Died: April 10, 1975

Walker Evans is  known for his work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) during the Great Depression.

While working for the FSA, he used a large-format 8×10 inch (200 x 250 mm) view camera.

His goal as a photographer was to “make pictures that are literate, authoritative, transcendent.” He is one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century. Considered the progenitor of the ‘documentary tradition’ in American photography, Evans had the ability to see the present already as the past. He put that knowledge and vision into his art that has made an everlasting impression on our country today. Almost all of his work is shot in black and white. He is best known for his documentary and portrait work throughout the Great Depression. 

Work Samples:

 

MY TAKE: