PROJECTS

I never expected myself to focus on art or photography. I grew up essentially forced to play music and for years it was such a burden on my back. Slowly, I turned back to music. It became my oasis from stress and, eventually, the first steppingstone in my discovery of photography. As I entered college, photography became a hobby to express myself. From my roommates asking to go on photoshoots at midnight to deciding to minor in photography, my camera became an extension of who I am.

With the COVID-19 pandemic taking over many of our lives, I became interested in the social and mental consequences our society has endured. Personally, being engulfed by COVID-19 from the very beginning has shown me the best and worst of the people around me. From completely isolating to denying and not caring at all about the well-being of others, I wanted to give people the ability to express their concerns.

For this series, I originally drew inspiration from Gillian Wearing’s image, I'm desperate from her series “Signs that Say What You Want Them To Say...” Here, Wearing tackled the thoughts of people as Britain was in its economic decline in the 1990s and was able to examine the relationship between public image and private identity. I wanted to take a spin on this, twisting her original idea to gain insight on students’ views about COVID-19. Whether it be the impact it had on their lives or something they wanted to say to those around us, I asked those I passed to write them down. Through the signs, I aim to spark a sense of realization and emotion, calling out those who think it isn’t real or have forgotten that it’s still relevant. This can especially be felt through the image, LISTEN, where the language used calls out to those in power, crying for help as the world around us seemingly crumbled. On the other hand, I also wanted to highlight that through the pain COVID-19 has caused, there is still good. In WHO I AM, in talking to her, she found the pandemic to be an opportunity to explore and spend time with herself, learning about her personal goals and who she wanted to be. Thus, demonstrating that in the end, we can find hope in the dark.

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Lastly, I wanted to shift the focus to the people. Through portraits of their faces, we can learn a lot. From sober emotions to anger to joy, we notice that we are not alone, that we are all in this together. To capture this, I created a collage of faces, merging people’s features into one to create the image We're All The Same. From finding our true selves to simply having to grow up due to COVID-19, these images bring to light our stories while also pulling us together. They are a call to action and a sign that what we do isn’t just for ourselves, but rather for our community.