Trends and Ideas

Initially, I noticed large diversity between my subject: one roll of my friend in drag, the next week a roll of close up and almost abstract water and algae shots. I can't say that I follow a particular subject matter or have a preferred theme. It's a struggle for me to produce a full roll of images that work because I like to shoot in lighting situations that are less than ideal so I can really explore how to best capture a frame that isn’t necessarily easy to capture. Attention, or slight lack thereof, to light, shadow, and reflection is a trend in my free choice rolls. I also really enjoy close-up and extreme close up, often to create some kind of abstraction. My perspectives are also often tilt shots from above or below.  I sometimes will get excited about a shot and continue shooting on a similar path, but not fully commit to a shot for an entire roll. Basically, I enjoy variety. Diversity is of greater value than repetition of similar shots.

Ideas in my work include trying to instill beauty into my shots whenever possible. When I shot my free choice roll of my friend Tyler in drag, I noticed that I tried very hard to make them candid, in order to capture not only his natural beauty as a human form, but the beauty of him having the confidence to dress up for me specifically, seeing as drag is not a general hobby of his. In my other rolls where the specific subject at hand is more ambiguous, I've noticed that most images still strive to capture to beauty, primarily through textures. It causes me to consider how a texture may make a viewer feel; wether it's creating a sense of tranquility through a shot of flowing and bubbling water, or  creating a feeling of confinement by portraying tightly packaged food products until droning neon lights. My work is either of the subject and the entire environment around it, or a close up free of a distinct setting or place. But in some cases I may have a close-up and the location will be quite obvious, yet, my goal is to not specifically let it be known or unknown. 

I would love to play more with revealing/concealing details or signs of locations and how by doing this I can strengthen my work and take it in a specific direction. This could be attained through my use of zoom/ macro by continuing to explore on a smaller scale and capture how things naturally, or unnaturally, fall into place.

I constantly return to my drag roll, it was not only a lot of fun, but a window for me to see into my gay friend's ideas about what "becoming" a woman may be like for him, considering that this was sort of campy drag rather than a serious costume shoot. I grew up with constant exposure to the gay community, and I have quite a few gay in friends in many locations at home and at school. I would be thrilled to do a series of LGBTQ community here in Richmond and try to address as many facets of the LGBTQ community as possible; present a diversity men and women who are out and proud of their sexuality. Furthermore, I'd love to get to know each subject and do my best to capture what it is exactly that being LGBTQ means to them, and then figure out how it could best be demonstrated through photographs. I would like to avoid just shooting portraits, but that may be a good place to start in order to generate more specific ideas.

Inspirational Photographers:

Mark Morrisroe

Nan Goldin 

Leland Bobbe