Date of Submission

Spring 2013

Academic Program

Photography

Project Advisor 1

Barbara Ess

Abstract/Artist's Statement

“One of the major goals of technology in America is to “free” us from the necessity of relating to, submitting to, depending upon, or controlling other people. Unfortunately, the more we have succeeded in doing this, the more we have felt disconnected, bored, lonely, unprotected, unnecessary, and unsafe.” —Philip Slater, The Pursuit of Loneliness, 1976.

This past year I’ve become aware of the facades constructed by our culture’s preoccupation with display and technology and possessions. I feel like there is a dis-connect between what we should do and own, how we should feel and appear—and real, deep down satisfaction.

After all, I grew up in comfortable suburbs. My parents are happily married. I go to a good school. I have a boyfriend, a job in the mall, and an iPhone. I apparently have it all. I should feel fulfilled, content, but there remains an uneasy sense of emptiness. Something is missing. I want more. And I don’t think I’m the only one.

My goal is to express this nagging sense of disappointment and a longing for deeper connection, for authenticity, that’s almost buried by our culture’s false promises of the model American life. It seems almost more important today to have the latest technology and a well decorated home than a sense of community. It’s less complicated to get money or movies from an automated box than another person.

In this process of photographing the world around me, it has begun to seem that in depending on how things are “supposed to be,” people become capable of forgetting to see what, and who, is really around them. The individuals of this modern world seem cut off from each other, set adrift in an empty world.

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