Artist Statement
Someone recently asked me how photography has affected my life. My response: “How hasn’t it?” some people would probably have said that my “ah-ha” moment was when I took my first photograph. But from my perspective, that was far from the truth. I didn’t have my moment until five years after I first picked up a camera intending to create a photo. I had always been unsure of my “why.” Why do photography? Unsure of my “what.” What did I want to say? But then I answered my rhetorical questions. I studied the importance of emotion in self-expression, and I realized that that was the missing piece. Emotions, although seemingly irrelevant, play a significant role in my self-expression. Photography has served as an emotional “dump” for me, allowing me to vent my frustration, stress, sadness, and especially joy. Although emotions seem to be an abstract idea, I feel it is my purpose as a photographer to manifest feelings into photos, such as those in my portfolio.
These are my friends. I see them throughout the week, constantly venting about their ever-growing stress; Rarely do I see them smiling. My unspoken role became to remind them to stop for one second and smile. After having this “job” for many months, I realized that even though smiling doesn’t steal time or effort from you, it still has many benefits in everyday life. After seeing the effects of smiling, I wanted to depict my friend’s change in attitude through a series of photographs. To avoid headshot-like poses, I encouraged genuine laughter and happiness. My ultimate goal is for the viewers of my photographs to smile, embodying the joy of the subjects. They say laughter is contagious, and I want my photographs to be the spark in the endemic of happiness. I chose to focus on happiness for that reason exactly: laughter is transmissible, unlike other emotions, such as depression or anger, that simply prompt empathy. In addition to that, I wanted to make the emotions in my photos the main focus, with as few distractions as possible. I chose a black background to illustrate the dark mindset that the models were in before I prompted them to release their burdens.
