PHOT 503 - Portfolio Process

POSITION STATEMENT

Growing up I’ve had a love of both movies and comic books. My grandfather introduced me to both and was probably my first taste of art as a child. As I have grown older and started creating my own works, I find that what I photograph is predominantly influenced by the same graphic novels and the movies I grew up with. My images are based on the creation of conceptual portraiture heavily influenced by pop culture, literature, and myth where I take socially established meanings created and either expand on them or subvert them entirely. The models used are predominantly everyday people to showcase a sense of normalcy to images of nonsense. They are my friends. They are the ones who have never done a photoshoot prior to working with me. My characters that I (re)create are meant to be a message that we can be anything we want to be regardless of social norms, expectations and idealism. I look to transcend to all cultures through the use of iconic images derived by not only graphic design sensibility but from a marketing point of view. Often my works are filled with both serious and humorous undertones and it is somewhere in-between the theatrical approach that my work becomes approachable at first glance. 

My work is often completed in a studio lighting situation so that I can have control over the mood and atmosphere created. I’ve found as I’ve gotten older the value of compositing from a mixture of natural light and studio lighting to produce otherworldly results within my fashion experience. It’s my goal in my works to stir emotions of nostalgia within the strange. 

PHOTOGRAPHIC INFLUENCES

DAVID LACHAPELLE - I was first introduced to Lachapelle through Rolling Stone magazine in the 90s. What I have drawn from his is his use of color to create a painter like quality to his works. 

TYLER SHIELDS - Tyler bases his work on consumerism and the addiction to it. As a set, his work has remained consistant throughout his career. It’s in his headshots that I see iconic status with minimal propping to get the message across. 

ANNIE LIEBOVITZ - Having worked with the Disney Brand myself, there is no denying the influence of Liebovitz. Aspriational in that she has worked with everyone in the industry to create some of the most iconic editorial photographs of the 20th and 21st century. 

DIANE ARBUS - With Arbus, I emjoy her use of the “everyday” model as in people who would not normally be photographed in what would be the previous artist’s work. I have often tried to encorporate all walks of life within my portraiture often finding myself utilizing members of the LGBTQ+ community. 

EXTRAPHOTO/INFLUENCE

ALEX ROSS & GRAPHIC NOVELS - Alex Ross is one of the most celebrated graphic novel artists of his time. His style is to create a humanistic portrayal of comic characters where he would use his friends and family as models for his works. His book, MARVELS, introduced the world of Marvel characters from the eye of a photographer which became the primer basis for my Heroes + Villains series where I create characters as adults playing pretend with makeshift costumes. His other series, EARTH X melts theology into mythology which is a mirror to my own works. 

COMIC ENCYCLOPEDIA - Probably no 2 books get used in my house more than these. With every character ever created big and small, it creates a neverending treasure trove of modern myths to pull from. 

FAIRYTALES, MYTH & LITERATURE - When not pulling from comics, I often pull from classic literature for inspiration. I have my own “Divine Comedy” series that I have worked on for over 10 years based loosely on Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass and Dante’s work but exploring Hell, Purgatory and Heaven through the lens of the stages of grief and trauma. In it includes several references to classic myths and characters often found in childrens book such as the Tin Man and Icarus. 

MOVIES - I have been a movie buff since I was a child. I’d rewatch movies over and over again to the point of memorization. From Disney to Marvel to Star Wars, they are all engraved into my works. Some movies to note that is echoed into my works is FANTASIA where I have merged sound and image together to create works of art. BE KIND REWIND is to be mentioned about making low-brow versions of classics. I developed my painterly style to my photographs based on WHAT DREAMS MAY COME and the idea that heaven is a painting. 

CLASSIC ART - Having started art originally as a painter, I have often been drawn to what came before in order to create something new. Some artists to note for my work is Duchamp, Salvador Dali, Caravaggio, Vemeer and Andy Warhol. I find that my eye and interests have been mostly drawn to the Baroque period of art for dramatic light and theatrical settings. 

PROJECT PROPOSAL

This is a continuation of my super-hero series with a focus on irreverant reverant portrayals of known characters from pop-culture spanning Marvel, DC, Disney, Video Games and Saturday Morning Cartoons. The concept is to have adults reconnect with their inner child and play pretend. Using costumes made from make-shift items, children’s toys or interpretive, this is a showcase of being able to be anything you want to be when you grow up. The meaning behind the images are both a character study of the super hero (or villian), but of the model themselves as well. 

Originally planned to be cultural timely to the COVID-19 crisis, the overall theme of this collection is about imagination and filling the time. What does one create when in quarantine? What does one do to pass the time when left alone? What social messages need to be shared? As the global crisis puts everyone on lockdown, how does one fill their time within a world changed and made smaller when confined to your own home and space?

As I spend most of my days in-doors with the movies and characters I grew up with, I can’t help but revisit them how they are preceived in my mind with what I have available to me to recreate them. 

ARTIST STATEMENT

I created these images as a makeshift world of pretend during a time of quarantine and unemployment for myself. Originally designed to be a statement of individuality and uniqueness, I imagined a world where these characters exist in my everyday life to keep me company. My choice of subject matter comes from a love for literature and characters introduced to me by my grandfather as a child. As I have grown older, so too have my perception of the characters I once saw as larger than life. Here they have become re-imagined to the world I’ve known. Somewhere along the way I have begun to see the human side of them through myself.  I’ve portrayed them tackling everyday tasks and simply existing within the world during this time of uncertainty and boredom. 

FINAL STATEMENT

We had two paths to go down based on our final grade. Defend your work if it didn't get an A, expand on where you go from here if you did. Seems simple enough, my final submission for class was this...

Overall, I found my series to be well received. Professor Wright has given some good suggestions on finessing a few of these images, which I have already started to implement changes to. I believe overall I am happy with the results that I have gotten in a short amount of time. (Thanks Covid for the free-time)

Moving forward I plan on moving past Heroes + Villains as a forefront project for now. I will expand on it as I go through life, but I want my main focus to be on something different for the time being. I just got in the mail an encyclopedia of characters from the Masters of the Universe (He-Man) which were the toys I grew up with as a kid, that I’d like to explore here and there. Perhaps as well with the characters of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Where I see the series really evolving into is I would love to explore the elderly as superheroes and villains. It would add to the human side of things for me that I think about now as my grandfather, who introduced me to these characters, is now in a nursing home. Eventually our heroes fall and what do we do with that is a question I do want to ask in picture form. But I don’t think I am ready to explore mortality of my heroes just yet. But I know where I want this series to go.

What I plan on doing is myth creation. I actually wrote a book this past year and self published it. From that book I created my own characters and my own stories based off of pre-existing myth and archetypes. I anticipated after the fact that I would use those characters for my thesis show when I am done with school. The story is loosely based off Alice and Wonderland mixed with The Divine Comedy. I think I have been scared to tackle the characters created in that book, but I feel over time and as each quarter goes I am going to continue to push myself to illustrate that which I have already conceptualized and written about.

I’ve been pushed this quarter and I thank everyone for the feedback I have gotten to mold thing better. Thank you so much and I hope we stay in touch.