Photography and Related Media

Showing 83 results
Brown Paper Bag Test

Brown Paper Bag Test

Maiya Wright
  • 2021
  • Photography and Related Media
Society perceives lighter skin tones as better in terms of beauty, worth and power. Young people in the Black community have perpetuated this idea. My project addresses colorism within the Black community and the effects it has on this and future generations. Asking various questions about complexion will start the conversation among those who experience or contribute to colorism. Questions like, "Do you know what colorism is, do you think colorism is real and do you know what the paper bag test is? " will bring personal awareness to others. Exploring what impact the brown paper bag test has among Black people will educate those who are not aware of its affect. As the next generation, we have the power to change society for the better, to be less racist and less bigoted. I may not stop colorism alone, but I want to be part of the solution to fix it.
New Beginnings

New Beginnings

Kimberly Vo
  • 2021
  • Photography and Related Media
My thesis project visually explores the transformation of my relationship with my mother. When I was 7 years old my parents divorced. My mother was having an affair, and because of that, there was a falling-out between us and I developed resentment towards her. I lost respect and trust for her, which led me to believe that our relationship could not be healed. Silence filled our home and we were never the same. After a few years, my mother began to date another man, which changed her perspective on life and pushed her to make amends with me. The COVID-19 lockdown opened up an opportunity for us to talk and take the first steps to move forward. The act of photography allowed me to heal old wounds, which helped me reconnect my relationship with my mother.
We Live Here, We Love Here

We Live Here, We Love Here

Kayden Strauss
  • 2021
  • Photography and Related Media
I have found that, throughout my life, my art is very personal to me and continues to be a form of processing my surrounding thoughts. Every image is influenced by my identity, exploring and memorializing what makes me who I am. When working, my methods are executed deliberately, focusing on agency and consent. Through my use of texture, color, and phrasing, I portray an image of a feeling. My current project, "We Live Here, We Love Here," is a series of identity portraitures that document trans and gender-nonconforming individuals. Inspired by the collective loss felt throughout history, each person is meant to be frozen in time. While influenced by the past, it also visualizes the future. I want to celebrate and uplift the community that has welcomed me so kindly, while still preserving it from outside forces. No matter what may happen, their stories are preserved and told.
Under Inner Core

Under Inner Core

Toni Smalls
  • 2021
  • Photography and Related Media
"Under Inner Core" is a visual poetry EP. It is a short film comprising five varying vignettes, each paired with five poems — turned into one long film. I've used this project as an exploration of my emotional landscape. I have always hidden under a faux vulnerability — I pretend that I am being honest about my emotions to keep others at bay. In reality, the feelings of being "alone in my own home" overwhelm me daily, relentlessly. The isolation weighs, feeling like a fog surrounding whatever space I occupy. In order to explore that friction, I intentionally clash the two realities by bringing household items into nature, and working with models who were Black, Indigenous or people of color as stand-ins for myself. I worked with BIPOC fashion designers to style the models in designs with emotional pull. The film is written, directed, shot, set-designed, and produced by me.
The City of Strangers

The City of Strangers

Elizabeth Scott
  • 2021
  • Photography and Related Media
I am a mixed-media visual artist who likes to focus on abstract and surrealist work. In "The City of Strangers" series, I enjoy photographing New York and its people, but I also heavily manipulate the images by placing multiple layers, different shapes, and saturated colors over the composition. These manipulations are of natural and man-made abstractions that have grabbed my attention ever since I was a child. These abstractions are typically left unseen in our fast-paced adult lives, but their rediscovery reminds me of my childhood, when one finds beauty and magic in everything around, no matter how minuscule it may be, whether in a dream or in reality. There is a conflict in us to grow up and to retain our innocence in how we interact with the world — the difference between what we call a documentary, and what we call fantasy.
From A Past Life

From A Past Life

Anthony Santos
  • 2021
  • Photography and Related Media
"From A Past Life" explores the arrangements of mundane objects. By constructing sculptures from various materials, such as metal, glass, wood, and wire, I create a series of still lives which explores contrasts and the transitions between objective and abstract appearance. This essentially creates a new formal and conceptual language by actively using open and negative space. The use of lines and shapes will work to modify and reinvent the formal language of minimalism, producing new relationships between the viewer and the surrounding environment.
The New Dystopia: Perceptions from an Alienated Society

The New Dystopia: Perceptions from an Alienated Society

Noah Sachs
  • 2021
  • Photography and Related Media
My senior thesis project, entitled "The New Dystopia: Perceptions from an Alienated Society," focuses on this new era we are all living through by using a filtered perspective that serves chaos and fear. The first four series of components or "chapters," travel through my mental space prior to and during the pandemic and ultimately lead to the final series, called "Revival." "Revival" serves as the final point of the project that transforms all of the negative energy into something influential. The intended larger message that "TND: PFAAS" wants to convey is that everyone is being alienated by something in society, and that is the new dystopia. This work has been important for me to create because it has allowed me to create from my own personal struggles while at the same time utilizing what goes on in the world collectively.
All That Remains

All That Remains

James Rubesh
  • 2021
  • Photography and Related Media
"All That Remains" is a historical, artistic approach to the abandoned remains of the buildings at Kings Park Psychiatric Hospital, and a look at the forgotten information that lies beneath the rubble. The project is ongoing and aims to gather the viewers' attention, give them the history of what went on in the early days of mental institutions, and provide imagery to go along with it, though not depicting any malpractice or treatment of the patients. There is a deep sense of the forgotten individuals and the lives that remain as memories within the walls. My love for the history of these places has brought me to this research and image-taking, and I aim to create the best images possible to capture the feeling of the space as well as to provoke the thought of what happened.
Close to Home

Close to Home

Laura Rodriguez
  • 2021
  • Photography and Related Media
"Close to Home" is a photographic series of suburban and industrial landscapes taken at dusk, in my hometown of Oceanside, New York. Despite growing up in this town, I have always felt disconnected from the environment. Oceanside is like any other suburban town, and just like any other city, it has its defining characteristics and oddities that I've always questioned. For instance, a mysterious landfill that no one knows anything about, chemical-filled canals that are threaded throughout the town, and a small sector of factories given the title "Oil City." Although the connection I have to the locations is detached and cold, I also find beauty in the places I photograph. The images are eerie, atmospheric, and dark, evoking the same emotions of uncertainty and tension that I feel while taking them. These classic suburban landscapes are empty and vacant of people, once inhabited spaces but now filled with suspense.
Vanha-Maahi

Vanha-Maahi

Tyler Roarty
  • 2021
  • Photography and Related Media
"Vanha-Maahi" centers around the Kalevala, the national epic of Finland that is based around folklore and mythology. I use the long-established American practice of quilt-making, which developed as a communicative tool, to pass down generational stories. I use vernacular images of my family to connect to my Finnish roots, relating members of my family to characters in the Kalevala. In the quilt, each photographic fabric block corresponds to one of the runes in the national epic. Select images on the quilt have accompanying audio read by my family, reciting a few lines from each selected story. This audio is played over a common Finnish lullaby, Nuku Nuku. Parts of the background are naturally dyed blue with indigo to reference the Finnish flag and its spiritual symbolism. I connect with my FinnishAmerican heritage by merging traditional values from each to transcend the feeling of domesticity, nostalgia, and time.
The Land Before Time

The Land Before Time

Nell Pittman
  • 2021
  • Photography and Related Media
The summer following my father's unexpected death, my mom, sister, and I traveled aimlessly across North America spreading his ashes. On these trips we found solace in bathing in streams, on long stretches of road touching flowering deserts, and in just seeing that the world was bigger than daddy dying. My memories of uninhabited land and the grief we poured into it are the inspiration behind my current photographic series. The collection consists of self-portraits alongside my family, evoking a once-familiar, yet now otherworldly utopia. There are no signs of modern life; the photographs are taken in tucked-away parts of nature that have not been directly altered by humans. The landscapes I chose to photograph are specific to my memories: a dried-up lake we used to canoe across, the wooded path where my parents got married, and landscapes reminiscent of those we traveled through while spreading his ashes.
A Year in the Wild

A Year in the Wild

Marissa Morello
  • 2021
  • Photography and Related Media
"A Year in the Wild" focuses on my trust in God and artistic instincts to document the beauty around me during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is a collection of snapshots caught exclusively on black-and-white film with an Olympus point-and-shoot. I suffered heavily from depression, anxiety, and substance abuse until a recent call to faith. Around the time I started reflecting on these images, I reconnected with my Roman Catholic roots. The 15 rolls of film acted as little time capsules, and when developed, allowed me to find salvation from my internal suffering.
Cognitive Itch

Cognitive Itch

Gillian Mitreuter
  • 2021
  • Photography and Related Media
"Cognitive Itch" is a collection of photographs that visually express the fully immersive experience one feels when obsessively listening to a body of music. In one's mind there is a blurred line between being meditatively present and a chaotic spiral of drowning out everything until the only thoughts repeated are the same lyrics, same melody. When dealing with this cognitive itch, or earworm, the over-whelming experience compelled me to make his work to transport the viewer to this state of mind. The photographs are achieved by using my synesthesia, which allows me to hear color. Through this process, I ultimately arrive at colorful abstract soundscapes by digitally altering photographs of light. I invite the viewer to spend time with the work and reflect on what these images bring to mind.
Naturescape

Naturescape

Nicole Minder
  • 2021
  • Photography and Related Media
Blurring the lines between reality and fiction, "Naturescape" is a collection of manipulated landscapes that have been re-envisioned with the use of technology to alter the natural world. I aim to change the perception of nature photography and distort the truth to create an alternate scene. The work is inspired by early 19th-century landscape painters, such as Albert Bierstadt and Thomas Cole, in their pursuit to create an idyllic world. This series pushes the limits of what a photographic landscape can be in relation to how it is normally seen: as documentation and truth. The landscapes are not specific to any recognizable location, as they are meant to be ambiguous, surreal, and unnerving. This is accomplished by having multiple components, such as animals, plants, landforms, and skies, taken from my other photographs and stock images. My reconstructions of environments provokes the viewer to explore uncharted territory.
NAILS

NAILS

Josephine Macdonald
  • 2021
  • Photography and Related Media
2020 has been an incredibly traumatic and unpredictable year for everyone around the world. We've witnessed countless social injustices, natural disasters, a significant presidential election, and a pandemic that has taken over a million lives in less than a year. I, like many people, suffer from anxiety, so maintaining my mental health has been more difficult than usual. One way I cope is by doing things with my hands, such as cleaning, painting, and doing nails. In my project, entitled "NAILS," I'm shooting self-portraits that dramatize some of the mundane activities I did while in quarantine. These self-portraits only include my hands and arms, which allows the viewer to focus on the subject. My nails are a crucial detail in this project, since I'm incorporating my passion for nail art into my photography. This detail is emphasized by shooting with flash against a vibrant background to add contrast.
Untitled

Untitled

Daniella Liguori
  • 2021
  • Photography and Related Media
I am a fine art photographer who is interested in exploring different psychological states by photographing myself in isolated or abandoned locations. I work with a medium-format film camera and often use long exposures to create an ethereal, dreamlike atmosphere. In my most recent series, I portray a solitary figure in various desolate ambiguous locations, embodying my melancholic state. I seek out secluded environments such as abandoned buildings and heavily wooded areas. The locations are an important element, almost like another character in the photograph with a history of their own. Even though I remain the subject of my work, I don't consider them self-portraits, but more a look into my psyche, displaying an inner state of mind. My face is always concealed, making the identity of the subject a mystery for the viewer.
Untitled

Untitled

Emily Lander
  • 2021
  • Photography and Related Media
I never did much traveling growing up. There were the smaller family road trips to North Carolina and various places in Canada, which is only 20 minutes from my house. Once, we even took a flight to Florida. But my 10-year-old dreams were farther out in the world. 2020 was the year those stopped being just dreams, with stamps from Grenada, Riviera Maya, and Hawaii filling up my passport this past year. But just weeks before boarding my first flight, COVID19 devastated the world. Within days, my flights and my everyday life was canceled. "Two weeks to flatten the curve" turned into five weeks, and then it was two months. Trapped, with no schedule to keep, the same walls. Trapped still today. The goal of my thesis is to create an escape, transforming the walls that have been trapping me, to feel free and creative again.
A Year at Home

A Year at Home

Leah King
  • 2021
  • Photography and Related Media
In the year 2020, we faced a global pandemic, protests against racial injustice, natural disasters, and a divided United States presidential election. I was in my sixth semester of college when COVID-19 broke out in New York City, forcing me back to my childhood home. Upon returning, I had to find a different way to produce work. I started taking a self-portrait every day as a type of diary. My quarantine photos then became my thesis project, "A Year at Home." These images are time-specific and created in reaction to events happening in the world outside the walls of my home. This series serves as a documentation and consideration of my inner world and how I was affected by the events happening through 2020 and into 2021.
Ecstasy of the Mutant

Ecstasy of the Mutant

Nathaniel Jerome
  • 2021
  • Photography and Related Media
There is a defined sense of dread attached to the architectural language of the modern prefabricated structure: The non-place. Office spaces, airplanes, subways, waiting rooms, industrial complexes, server farms, and homogeneous McMansion communities. In all of these places festers a recognition of the birth, exploitation, and death of the radically free autonomous individual at the hands of the venture capitalist. "Ecstasy of the Mutant" is an exploration of the shifting meaning of physical and digital landscape in the context of the non-place, using images, unsecured camera networks, and AI deep learning algorithms.
Marie Antoinette / Ophelia / Saint Sebastian

Marie Antoinette / Ophelia / Saint Sebastian

Naomy Guzman
  • 2021
  • Photography and Related Media
The most inspirational part of my study abroad in Paris was going to the Louvre. I was immediately taken aback by how large their collection of paintings was, but while looking around, I realized that almost all of the subjects depicted were white. None of them looked like me, an Afro-Latina with tan skin and curly hair. What would have been a fun museum trip for most people became an eye-opening experience that made me think about representation in art history in a way I never had before. So I decided to rewrite history and make photographs inspired by some of the paintings that I had seen. Recently it feels as though the beauty of people of color is a modern concept. By going back in time and placing them in classical paintings, I want to show that we were always beautiful and worthy of this kind of representation.
Cat Eyes / Cat Clock Eandhp

Cat Eyes / Cat Clock Eandhp

John Groves
  • 2021
  • Photography and Related Media
  • Sill Image
Program/Degree: Photography and Related Media BFA
Untitled

Untitled

Sabrina Giacomaggio
  • 2021
  • Photography and Related Media
"Sending Thoughts and Prayers" is a long-form documentary series telling the story of my mother's last few years. My mother's health started to decline rapidly in 2018 after receiving experimental chemotherapy in the late 1980s. Initially, in January 2019, the series was created out of necessity for me, a defense mechanism for the realities of my declining mother. Eventually, the series continued in collaboration with her. Her speech and mobility were limited, but she clung to the idea that we were still able to do something, anything, together. Through a number of health complications, we created the content of "Sending Thoughts and Prayers." The images primarily highlight our relationship, our navigation through life's process, and an overarching fear of death.
Three Ducks In a Row

Three Ducks In a Row

Olivia Gates
  • 2021
  • Photography and Related Media
I am a fine art photographer from Huntsville, Alabama. I started documenting the Southern landscape when I was 18 years old. Staying close to my roots, I continue photographing the South, rich in history and transcendent natural beauty. Since leaving home for NYC, I look back on my home with a more sentimental gaze, through a newly altered lens. I intend to create a photographic time capsule by capturing places that are fading into history and being overtaken by suburbia. I shot on medium-format slide film with the intention of showcasing the colors of the ordinary structures and landscapes.
The Edge of Adolescance

The Edge of Adolescance

Jenna Gardner
  • 2021
  • Photography and Related Media
My current body of work, entitled "The Edge of Adolescence," consists of self-portraits that share my personal experience from my adolescent years to adulthood. This series visually explores my identity and sexuality, along with the privacy of intimacy and pleasure. My focus is to draw awareness to the adolescent years I am leaving behind, as well as the new stages I am entering. Here I capture my daily mundane self-care routines, but also share a side I had never touched on until I moved away from my childhood home. This work will resonate over time and evolveas I progress and grow as an individual. As I document myself through these transitory moments, they simply fill up an archive of vulnerable and raw photographs of me, expressing that no taboo deserves to be left out of frame.
Ode to The Queer Youth

Ode to The Queer Youth

Marissa Fortugno
  • 2021
  • Photography and Related Media
"Ode to The Queer Youth" examines my relationship with my sexual identity and gender expression through portraits of my peers and people who inspire me. I was never allowed to feel secure in my identity; questions about who I was were constant at a young age. This made it difficult for me to express myself and I often felt alone in my queerness. It wasn't until I started to find queer friends that I was able to be comfortable and secure with myself. This project is an exploration of not only my peers and my community, but of myself and my own identity. It is important for me to photograph my queer friends because I feel they should be honored and recognized. This is my community, and without them I wouldn't have the strength or courage to feel free to express myself as a queer person.