Saturday Morning Reflections

I woke up this morning thinking about how in love I am with my boyfriend. How I want to get married and have babies already and just be happy and nurturing. Then I looked at my wall and saw my artwork I though about how I really love doing art and I don't want that to stop. How maybe having kids and a family will make it harder to do my art, and I could lose my passion and creativity. But then I realized my parents and my siblings have always encouraged me to do art, even as a child. I realized that my childhood shaped me into the artist I am. I realized that right now I'm doing art with my boyfriend, and he's being so supportive and encouraging. I realized that family and human life and living have significant influences on me and my art. So I shouldn't be afraid of having more family as I grow older. I should embrace it and let it encourage and shape my art. To be very deep and poetic: my future is my canvas, and my family is my paintbrush. They will help me create. 

Cheryle St. Onge

             Cheryle St. Onge was born and raised in Massachusetts. She received her MFA from Massachusetts College of Arts. She creates most of her images with an 8x10 camera, and most of her images are black and white.

              Cheryle has done several series of photos, all seeming to have a theme of childhood, nature, and curiosity. Cheryle’s images speak to me because they bring me back to my childhood. Her use of light and casted shadows are things that I am easily amused with, and always have been. I remember looking out the window of my grandparents’ house and staring at the ceiling of the porch outside, where the pool was casting glimmering shadows. There was nothing I loved more than exploring with my friends, and finding creatures and curious things like spider webs or pretty rocks or some weird looking berries. I really enjoy Cheryle’s ability to bring memories of my childhood to the surface of my mind with simple images of little things. There is something calming and yet exciting about her work. It makes me want to grab my camera and go outside! 

http://cherylestonge.com/natural-findings

Intimacy in Photography

              When I first began taking photos, I hardly ever thought about concept or emotion, and certainly not intimacy. However, as I’ve grown, I’ve realized those are the most important things to consider when taking photographs of any kind. Although I was not thinking about emotions consciously, I have looked back and seen emotion expressed through figures in even my sports photography from high school. I tended to focus more on the sidelines rather than where the ball was. I’ve definitely decided that images that hold intimacy and emotion are much easier to have a connection with. So, I’ve decided to embrace this and fill my photos with it.

              There are certain things that I know I will never reveal in my photographs. I have strong morals, and my family does as well, and I would rather not put myself and my family in an awkward situation for a photo. At least not right now in my life. Even though my photos do not consistent of death or nudity, I feel like I am still expressing intimacy. The majority of my subjects have been my family, friends, and my boyfriend. I have shown intimacy in relationships with my sisters, with women as a whole, and now with my boyfriend. I do try to make sure my subjects understand the concept I am trying to express before I take the photos. I have made sure they are comfortable with every detail, down to the title I place on the image, and the locations it will be viewed in. After all, I have never paid anyone to be my subject, they have all been volunteer, and I would hate to put them out in any way in return.

              I felt as though the key that the panelists used to avoid exploitation of their subjects was communication. As I mentioned before, I feel that rehearsing and writing down your goals for your images is very important when trying to photograph something intimate with a subject. It is not something a serious artist should take lightly. I felt a connection with the panelists. I have never taken photos of anything remotely connected to death or mental illness, and I cannot imagine how uncomfortable and hard it must’ve been to have those intimate conversations with people. It takes a lot of confidence and drive to do something like that. The panelists taught me that if the topic is important enough to you as an artist, you will take the risk of being uncomfortable and you will get through it.

              I feel like art is an amazing way to bring understanding to issues in our world. There are so many images of war and destruction that have touched peoples’ souls to the point of tears. People jumping from the twin towers on 9/11 are some of the most recent and most impactful images I have ever seen. I’ve created images that I hoped to bring emotion and thought to my viewers, such as this image of a friend of mine, who was critiqued and judged because she cut her hair in a way that she was more comfortable with. My idea with this image was to express how this woman felt as a woman. Regardless of the fact that she identifies as lesbian. I think without the image, this point would not be as strong and as understandable.              

         I’ve also created images like this one, in which I’ve tried to express the childlike love I have for my God and my Church. This is an image that many other people have told me they have felt a connection with. It’s amazing to me to hear that, because this image came straight from my heart.

              

      

       I’ve also done images like these of my sister and my mother, in which I attempted to express a woman’s emotions. The strength versus the fragility, and the layers of innocence and womanhood that we all hold within us.

         
         From watching the panelists I felt like my work was closest to Kerry Payne Stailey’s work. Since I am now doing a project on intimacy and love with my boyfriend, and she had actually done an Instagram series on her relationship with her now husband.

Project Statement and Part One statement

Today, as I write this, I would have been celebrating 4 years of happiness with the love of my life. However, love is far too interesting to have let that happen. I am only twenty-three, I know I am young. Yet, I feel that I already have a story of love and loss, and love, to tell.

              In the past I have done projects on my sisters, and mother, and our connection as women in the world. I also did a project on women in general, and our struggle within a judgmental society. I feel that I have done these projects to learn more about my journey as a woman. After every project I do, I reflect and think about what I’ve learned. Doing those projects actually contributed to my growth during my breakup, and my reunion with my boyfriend, Clay. I realized that I hadn’t looked at my journey with this person I had seen almost every day for 4 years.

This is why I have chosen to create a photo narrative of my relationship with Clay from beginning to end. I hope to connect more with him, on a different level, as we shoot photos together. I also hope to learn more about our connection as I attempt to illustrate both of our emotions, together and separate, within different phases of our past.

This is a very personal approach for a project. However, I believe all my past projects have been personal, this one is just about a relationship between two people, rather than a group. I hope to not become cliché or too romantic with this project. I would like it to have more personality and depth. I am also trying to not do double exposures, however I’m not promising anything.

Part 1: “My Love For You Is Pure and True”

When Clay and I first got together, we were very romantic. He always took me on dates to eat, and to the movies, he always drove, and he always paid. We saw one another just about every day. We were obsessed. The honeymoon phase was fully activated. I was eighteen, and he was nineteen. I was in my second year of college, and unemployed, he was taking online classes, and working at a tomato factory. I had only had two boyfriend before him, lasting 2 months and 2 weeks in all. He had just gotten out of a relationship that really messed with his head and heart, a year prior. I know we are still young now, yet I can’t help to think “We were so young.” We tried so hard to do things the way couples were supposed to. We celebrated our “anniversary” every month. He spoiled me to no end with gifts and attention. We really were happy, but it felt as though I were in a dream state

For this first part, I wanted to express emotions of the intimacy and closeness that we felt when we first got together. The loveydoveiness. I attempted this with the emphasis on hands, faces, and touch. I mean come on, we don’t touch other peoples’ faces unless we love them. I wanted to give the photos a strong blown out basic white background, to represent the simplicity of our beginnings, and pure heartedness that it began with. It was simple: we wanted to be together. Nothing else mattered. Right?



The title for part 1: "My Love For You Is Pure and True" is a phrase from a poem Clay wrote me before we parted ways. This photo is the first photo we took together as boyfriend and girlfriend.