Some Color Photos

Project Statement

"PotRat" is a carefully crafted mosaic of 35mm photographs pieced together to form an image that is both abstract and outside reality. The jagged composition plays with the viewers eye, creating a world that is unknown and beyond reach. "PotRat" is meant to confuse and intrigue, while still maintaining its formal qualities in black and white photography.

Photos taken in Dansville, New York. Digitally scanned negatives.

Misc. Pictures (Taken on Phone)

Mosaic Self Portrait

I'm not 100% sure what I would like to do for this project and knowing my process I'm sure the idea will change throughout time. Last semester I did a mosaic style photo project using a digital camera and my roommate as my subject. It was very successful in the arrangement of the images lining up fairly perfectly but I felt it lacked character in its alignment. I would maybe like to photograph my bedroom or a place where I spend a majority of my time. I feel these areas show a lot of who I am and how I spend my time. I also like the idea of it being in black and white, and would like to bring light in as a main theme in these pictures.

My process for the portrait project was random and spontaneous rather then posed and planned. I decided to spend several days bringing my camera around with me wherever I went and photographing some of the people I encountered. In post production I chose a series of images that I thought best exemplified the subject's qualities or personality or physical traits. I paired two sets of images for each subject, one of them smiling, sometimes posed and sometimes candid, with an image of them doing something that describes a part of them. I felt the intention of this was only achieved if I included many images rather then narrowing them down.

Cars, Cows and Really Awesome Houses

Todd Hido

One unconventional photographer I became interested in is Todd Hido. He came to Alfred University last semester to give a presentation on his photography. One of his main bodies of work were a series of photos taken of houses at night. Hearing him explain his process of photographing these places at night was really interesting, though I could not tell you how he does it. The images come out eerie, mysterious, beautiful. It is amazing how he is able to take something so ordinary, the view of a house from the street as well as the types of houses, and make them something extraordinary. It also adds another layer of understanding to be able to hear the artist talk about his work directly. 


Here is the link to his website :  Todd Hido's Photography

My Feelings Toward Photography

Photography for me is a way of documenting things in my surroundings. I use photography to remember certain events, moments, people, places, or just to capture something fleeting and instantaneous. Growing up with film cameras instilled the tactile, physical aspect of photography in me as something I love. Looking through old pictures bring up memories you may have forgotten. With almost everything being digital now, that feeling sometimes gets lost. But the digital medium opens up a world of new possibilities. One thing I am fascinated by when it comes to digital photography is how instant everything is, from the snapshot to the computer to facebook, hundreds of people can instantly view what you have captured (smartphones adding even more rapidity to the process). The Chinese felt that pictures were meant to show a person or place or thing at its best, i.e. posed, neat, clean, how you would want to present that thing to the world. They felt that candid photography was invasive and inappropriate. But without candid photography we would not know as many truths as we now do. We wouldn't know what slums of cities looked like, or poverty stricken areas of certain countries, or people being treated unfairly. Photography has so many practical and artistic functions in our daily lives. The two pictures are examples of how photography can be used as a means of documenting social/political activism. The Vietnam War was one of the first highly televised/documented wars. Americans and people all over the world were now seeing, for the first time ever, images of some of the horrible things going on outside of America.