Parsons requires first year students to take a requirement of courses before beginning our major courses. As a photography major, naturally I was nervous to start this drawing and imaging course. However, I was fortunate enough to have Emily Singer as my teacher. Ironically enough, as an art major I had no idea how to properly convey my thoughts through a piece of paper. Give me a camera, however, and I’ll express my creativity in a such a manner that seems effortless, to some extend anyway. Emily Singer’s various and well developed talents in not only artistic matters but the sensitive art of teaching allowed me to discover and furthermore stimulate my underlying ability to draw. Emily Singer taught me a crucial difference that perhaps the domestication of photography could not have taught me. The critical difference between a picture and an image. To most, the difference is slight, if even existent. Despite this, I came to realize through Emily Singer’s aid that a picture, although worth a thousand words, cannot describe the emotions felt that is captured through a medium into one’s imagination, being an image. An image is simply an interpretation, prompted by the metaphor of which one seeks to create through protruding an external force in the form of art. This difference was what allowed me to access my underlying potential. And for that, Emily Singer, I thank you.
For my last project in this course, I was challenged with creating a short book. I decided I would base it on the places I have lived and my experience with education. I realized through out my life how important education is through the contrast of my experiences. I used photoshop to create three cities; Caracas, Venezuela, Lausanne, Switzerland, and New York City, United States. Along with their essential landmarks. This project along with many others has been crucial for my experience at Parsons. It taught me more than ever the basics of photoshop. This course has been very helpful and I am sure it has given the building blocks for my future challenges here as a student of The New School.
