Browsing by Subject "photographs"

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
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    A South Street Aperture
    (2017) Blanco, Holden
    I’ve never been very good at drawing or painting. I always used to try to draw pictures of my family and friends, or my favorite fantasy movie characters. My pictures never came out exactly the way I wanted until I discovered photography. I have always found people to be fascinating— how every single one of us is different. It’s the same with a photograph. It’s nearly impossible to recreate a photograph of a person in exactly the same way each time; each new photo is different from the last. That’s why I photograph people. These images of people on South Street go beyond the paper they’re printed on; they represent a story, a history, a lifetime of experience. My photographs do not focus on race, gender, or age; but rather, they focus on my interactions with a wide and diverse array of individuals. The images range from the documentary to the explanatory. The diversity of images helps encompass a representation of the South Street—the commercial street in South Philadelphia is filled with interesting people and stories. This part of the neighborhood acts as a medium to facilitate interactions among my subjects, and subsequently, these photographs. I have chosen to use 35mm black-and-white film and the grain and aesthetic that comes with it. The production of a black-and-white film image cannot be replicated with digital equipment. Using film also slows down the photographing process, as each image is carefully captured individually and not by a burst of 50 digital captures. Carefully composing one shot at a time connects me with the process of photographing these people. The portraits when presented together as a collage help create a profile of South Street. The images vary in size, which helps emphasize the most important images. The chosen and matted images selected from the collage create a separate and individualized perspective of my time in the community. They show how South Street isn’t a person; it’s a place and it’s a community. The people who inhabit South Street are what bring it to life. Making A South Street Aperture allowed me to build a relationship with South Street. By comparing the wide array of images with one another, I’ve created a visual representation of my own experiences on South Street.
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    Annie Risemberg Fine Arts Senior Thesis Project
    (2013) Risemberg, Annie; Kim, Hee Sook
    I started photographing on 52nd Street in early 2010. I came to Bryn Mawr and Haverford from a low-income family and a diverse upbringing, and while I found the suburban community uncomfortable, I was drawn to the lively and open atmosphere I found on 52nd. I have since spent a lot of time there, both creating photographs and connecting personally with the area. This body of work is about the youth of that neighborhood, which is almost entirely African-American, and I have found is often overlooked by the surrounding wealth of the Main Line to the west and the University of Pennsylvania to the east. Being young, urban, and black, these people are also one of the most stereotyped groups in the United States. Some of the individuals depicted are people I only spoke to for a few minutes, and some are people I have known for a few years. I am interested in self-expression and self-representation, especially considering that our generation is intimately familiar with how to present themselves to a camera. Each photograph has a story behind its creation, whether it was a woman stopping me on the street and asking for a photograph as a favor or a young man deciding to be photographed in front of a mural of his late friend. I want the images to evince some sense of that story and of the individual that I knew or encountered.
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    My Participation
    (2012) Sanchez, Christine; Williams, William
    Graffiti, in its most common form—name tagging—has always been a part of my life. In middle school, my classmates always tagged things—desks, walls, backpacks, sneakers, and so on. They scribbled down their thoughts wherever they wanted. You could find anything on the walls of Abington Avenue School—cartoon characters, expletives, names, penises, jokes. It seemed nothing was off limits. When I was twelve, markers of all sorts were even banned in school, and anyone caught with them would be given detention. This is probably where my fascination with graffiti started. Ironically, I was mostly an observer of graffiti. Rebellion is simply not in my DNA. As a child, I liked to think of myself as a rebel—telling people off and doing as I pleased— but in reality, I was happy to do exactly what was expected of me: the right thing. It never crossed my mind to write something on the school walls, but I was somewhat envious of everyone who did. What was different about me that kept me from trying to do so? Instead, I feel compelled to record the graffiti other people have created. This selection of photographs shows some of the works that I crossed paths with while in Philadelphia. They are shot digitally and displayed in various size color prints. Some of the graffiti I chose to photograph is “traditional” graffiti, or spray painted, while some is on stickers. Most were taken head-on while I was walking, while a few were taken while I was on the train. I am interested in graffiti’s use of color as a method for attracting the eye, and often indulge in photographing these colors. The images are treated as portraits, because I like to think that what each person decides to ‘tag’ is a representation of him or herself. I like to think this is my way of finally participating—only once-removed. My lithographs reflect another side of my interest in graffiti. These prints combine portraits I have taken of children and images of graffiti. For me, there is both a harmonious incongruity and a deep logic in putting the images together.
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    Natasha Cohen-Carroll Fine Arts Senior Thesis Project
    (2013) Cohen-Carroll, Natasha; Williams, William
    When I was young, I loved playing with my grandmother’s elbow skin; I was fascinated by the way in stayed in place, its elasticity, and the beautiful purple and green color of her veins. Her arm became a place of exploration and discovery for me, though I kept returning to her watch. I would notice the way her watch matched her teeth, as the elegance of the enamel and metal played off of each other, and created correspondences beyond material and logic. In her skin, her wrinkles and creases, I would read the story these lines offered. Over the course of the year, I have started to read other stories through other lines in visiting and photographing residents of the Bryn Mawr Terrace retirement home. By learning the language of this new territory, I realized that the folds of their skin were indissociable from the folds of their memory, as the text of the recollections they shared with me coexisted with the text that their body presented. In my visits and conversations, memories seemed not to merely deal with the passage of time, but with the oscillation between presence and absence, between moments of clear and blurred vision. At times, the absence became literal: within the course of my stay, one of the residents died, one was hospitalized, but their felt presence still informed my exploration. These photographs are the trace of what I keep with me, even after the lines disappear.
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    Tirsa Delate Fine Arts Senior Thesis Project
    (2016) Delate, Tirsa
    Each time my mother has been diagnosed with cancer, the bond that we share has been tested. In the past, we always joked about her never getting colds, just cancer. Currently, she is undergoing treatment for her sixth cancer diagnosis and her second ovarian cancer recurrence. The most recent recovery period has taken a toll on both her physical abilities and our relationship. Over the course of a few months she lost her ability to breathe normally, walk, and live independently. This series of images began as an outlet for me to cope with her illness without having to embrace my emotions. During the initial months of her current diagnosis, every time I interacted with her it was confined to the Havertown apartment she moved into to receive treatment at Bryn Mawr hospital. I realized I was resentful and angry and felt abandoned by the person who was supposed to take care of me. The photographs I made during this period were an expression of my psychological mindset through the representation of our disconnected and distanced bodies. Recently, she has made significant strides in her health and mobility and the photographs are more collaborative and explore our metaphysical, emotionally connected state. The images enter a dreamy, alternate realm that represents the intimate relationship that has reemerged. Our relationship is not simple, and even though she has improved the photographs reflect the complex nature of our bond and her illness. I perform in the images, trying to expunge the sick part of her. They represent a relationship that is tumultuous and unconditional and illustrate the tenuous connection between our bodies and psyches. The video piece depicts the vulnerability and corporeality of my mother’s body. The close-up shots reveal details and abstractions of her form and illustrate the differences between my body and hers. Breathing is a vital part of being alive that is often quiet and goes unnoticed. The constant breathing in the video is akin to a pulse that ties my mother and me to each other in a temporal space. This series is a constructed narrative that represents our relationship and all the complexities that come with it.