Date of Submission

Spring 2022

Academic Program

Photography

Project Advisor 1

Laura Steele

Abstract/Artist's Statement

Born and raised in Seattle Washington in the Pacific Northwest, I have always had a deep appreciation for the outdoors. This love of the natural landscape has been cultivated and encouraged by my family over the years as I have grown up and explored further and further away from home.

My 35mm black and white photographic work explores distance and intimacy, both physical and emotional. I am drawn to the vastness of the Colorado mountains, the light on the back of my sister’s hair, small faraway figures hidden in the Paris landscape, and the tiny hairs on a cactus plant. Between these moments of vastness and moments of intimacy, I cannot help but notice a change in my own emotional state while I am photographing, and I believe that this shift is reflected in my images. When I step back to look at the landscape before me, there is both a physical and emotional distance. I am searching for something more, something lost, something that is not there. It evokes an emotion like sadness. But then, when I step in close, it’s as if I have found the connection that I was looking for. The almost-sadness disappears, and there is a certain energy that is found.

Map making has also been an important part of my practice. These hand-drawn maps trace the pathways I take while moving through various environments. As I wander and explore I often feel lost, distant from my home and family. However, through the process of hand making these maps, my photographs feel grounded, and I am able to find a kind of closeness and intimacy.

My work not only explores the physical landscape before me, but also my own emotional one. As I wander, the audience sees that I am consistently brought back to places of comfort. Images of my sister’s hair spilling over a railing, my mom asleep on the couch, a reflection on the street in Seattle, and the close up portrait of my dad. No matter how far I wander, I find myself making these intimate images about connection and family, time and time again.

Open Access Agreement

Open Access

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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