Ariel Anne Kessler

What is your senior thesis?

I was eight years old when my father was diagnosed with cancer, and eleven when he died. Because of this loss, I began hoarding his belongings in order to hold on to him. I believed that if I let go of the objects, I let go of him. Because his death was so traumatizing, and I was so young, I have little memory of his actual existence in my life. This allowed me to create a romanticized idea of his life. For this project, I want to photograph his belongings and his lack of existence in my life: photographing the absence of family with the replacement of decay and his possessions.

For my senior thesis, I want to create environments where his things entrap me, or follow me around. I want to create landscapes of abandonment and loneliness, and also create photographs depicting my moving forward and letting go of guilt.

What motivated you to start this project? What inspires your creative process?

After over thirteen years of therapy, and art therapy. I felt that this was the time in my life to begin this project. I felt that this year, being my last year of school, is a huge transitional period. In order for me to move on emotionally, and by using my photography I could let go of the parts of my past that are holding me back.

Do you work in film or digital? Please describe any technique or process relevant to your project.

I am a traditionalist. I only work with film and print my photographs myself in the darkroom. Being in the darkroom is a huge part of the process. To be able to see the work appear before my eyes in the darkroom is magical, and to really use my hands instead of a computer screen and printer allows me to feel more intimate with my work. I’m in the process of figuring out a good chemical combination to coat paper with silver gelatin paper. This way, I can continue working for the rest of my life without the need for a computer!

Is this a new project or a continuation of previous work?

It’s a bit of both. I feel that my previous work has always had these themes of quiet, voyeuristic, personal and isolating moments. This project is a collection of new ideas though that I have not explored yet.

What artists or works of art have inspired or influenced you?

For this project I’ve been looking at a lot of Roy DeCarava work. Not so much for content but for his printing style. He is one of my favorite photographers and I just love photographs where shadows are very dark. This project really allows me to go in that direction. My favorite artists over all consists of many, but specifically Imogen Cunningham, Sarah Moon, Mark Cohen, Debbie Fleming Caffery, Roger Ballen, Ralph Eugene Meatyard, Mary Ellen Mark, Sally Mann, Ralph Gibson, Elliot Erwitt, Anne Birgman, Emmet Gowin, Sebastião Salgado, and so on! I’m a bit obsessed with photography. If I could not be a photographer myself, I would have to work somehow with photography and photographers. So I am constantly reading, looking, and learning from photographers of all kinds.

What is the ideal setting to view your work? Do you picture your photographs in a book? In a gallery?

I am open to different ways of my work being presented. Whether in a book, gallery or an instillation, I want viewers to be engaged in the work. Although my work tends to be personal, I want viewers to be able to place themselves in the work.

Do you have any ideas or plans for future work?

I am constantly shooting, and I have a notebook filled with ideas that I want to work on once I am not in a school environment where it is assignment based. I have lots of ideas regarding nature overpowering man-made landscapes. As if no matter what man creates, nature will defeat it. I am interested in traveling to the South where plants grow and grow to the point of covering industrial landscapes.

What do you see yourself doing after graduation?

When I am finished with classes in May, I am moving to Portland, Oregon. Portland has a wonderful up and coming art scene that I am really interested in being a part of. I want to work a job that just pays the rent and then just be able to focus on my work. I’ve lived in Boston all of my life, I lived New York City for a few years, and now I want to travel more and be a part of artist communities out West and in other parts of the world. I want to eventually work with other traditional photographers to open up community darkrooms all over. Eventually I would like to go to Grad school but that won’t be for a while!

You can check out Ariel's website at www.arielkessler.com

Natalie Rose

What is your senior thesis?

I’m interested in testing the boundaries and possibilities of light in a way that relates to thinking about and creating a painting.

What motivated you to start this project? What inspires your creative process?

I was not ready to completely move on from my project last semester. I felt as though I had taken every picture I could take, but still felt compelled photograph light. At the end of my last semester I took two photographs that steered me in the direction that I’m going now. That was the explosive flashlight picture and my shadow. I was excited that it was something I fully created and was curious if I could continue working in the same manner. I was also intrigued by a double exposure I took that I continue to recreate as a photo-collage.

Do you work in film or digital? Please describe any technique or process relevant to your project.

I work in color film with a large format camera and then scan and print digitally.

Is this a new project or a continuation of previous work?

I’m trying new things, but this really is a continuation of my project last semester.

How has your work developed or changed over time?

I began photographing windows inspired by the light entering a space and utilized the predetermined frame. Then I moved onto to experimenting with camera obscura. I then removed the dark plastic from the windows and let the light naturally transform the space day and night and documented what happened. Now I am creating my own constructed instances of light.

What artists or works of art have inspired or influenced you?

Jan Groover, Joan Miro, Jeff Wall, John Pfahl, Uda Barthe, Tim Davis, Moholy-Nagy, Henri Matisse.

What kind of response do you hope to get from your viewers? Is there a certain experience you want people to take away from your photographs?

I hope that they find them interesting and can’t stop looking. That they think about and pay attention to the world around them more and how light alters and affects it.

What is the ideal setting to view your work? Do you picture your photographs in a book? In a gallery?

I would prefer a gallery but would never limit myself from opportunities that come up.

Do you have any ideas or plans for future work?

Honestly my work could take me anywhere.

What do you see yourself doing after graduation?

I am definitely going to travel as much as possible after I graduate, maybe temporarily move to New York City and try to get into galleries. I’m also going to apply for grants like crazy, and I haven’t ruled out grad school down the road.

Bret Woodard

What is your senior thesis?

This stuff I’m making now is like my photographic sketchbook of ideas, in most cases, they’re plans for objects to be made placed in fantastical environments or they’re my memories that have been visually exaggerated just a tad.

What motivated you to start this project?

An idea for an object to build one day but no way to afford the materials. I started to do some
drawings but they didn’t feel right. I wanted to see what this would look like in the real world, or a reasonable facsimile, so to the good ol internet I went and started pulling up a bunch of pictures; landscapes, people, objects, etc. After getting enough on my palette to play around with, I started to collage everything together, and ended up liking the result.

Do you work in film or digital?

Almost everything is digital collage, not really touching a camera at the moment.

Is this a new project or a continuation of previous work?

New project, continuation of previous thought process.

How has your work developed or changed over time?

Aw shit, it changes like almost everyday, to look at anyway. Whenever an idea pops into my head I just start making it and ask as few questions as possible until it’s done. So, visually my work has a tendency to jump around, where as the stream of thought behind it all is pretty consistent.

What artists or works of art have inspired or influenced you?

Mainly just the people around me in the studio or certain faculty I’ve gotten to know and respect.

What kind of response do you hope to get from your viewers?

Any kind, it’s when there isn’t a response that things get awkward…Eiyee.

Is there a certain experience you want people to take away from your photographs?

After looking at my pictures, someone told me that the great thing about photography now is that it can become like the new cartoon, you can drop an anvil on someone’s head or run off a cliff and not fall, it can become it’s own reality. If there is an experience someone gets after seeing this stuff, I’d hope it would be a moment of sharing in my world, like reading a Shel Silverstien book and for a time getting lost up in the fantasy.

Zachary Milligan-Pate

What is your senior thesis?

My project has a simple and iterative method: I walk the city at night photographing as I go. Last February I was mugged and attacked at night and I believe that this project is a way for me to process and explore those feelings. It's not necessarily therapeutic, in fact it is often solitary and disconcerting to be out late at night, alone, photographing. But I think that I can use photography as a way to build off of this experience and to channel its negativity into a creative area of my life.

What motivated you to start this project? What inspires your creative process?

The project arose circumstantially, as I have only 7pm-7am free to photograph and I have always been interested in the photographic tradition of exploring and documenting what one finds.

Do you work in film or digital? Please describe any technique or process relevant to your project.

I shoot 4x5 black and white film, and scan and print digitally. The view camera forces me to observe and move much slower than I am used to in my daily life. This makes the processes of physically looking and photographing more laborious and at the same time more encapsulating.

Is this a new project or a continuation of previous work?

I have always had an affinity for photographing at night and this project is a new manifestation of an old habit.

How has your work developed or changed over time?

When I began taking nighttime walks in the city and photographing, the images were more reserved and often focused on the presence or absence of people. I found myself struggling to find my subject. But as I have continued to photograph at night, I discovered that the process is the subject and that the world we live in is transformed at night into one of silence.

What artists or works of art have inspired or influenced you?

I have been inspired by the way that Eugene Atget observed Paris, using the camera in its most utilitarian, observational ways, and how Walker Evans looked at the world with a straight forward view that let it speak for itself. I find myself coming back to the way that Robert Adams explored the American west, especially the Denver years, and the way that Michael Kenna distorts the night.

What kind of response do you hope to get from your viewers? Is there a certain experience you want people to take away from your photographs?

I want the viewer to come away feeling that the places and views common to some are always different for others, that familiarity and comfortability are relative.

What is the ideal setting to view your work? Do you picture your photographs in a book? In a gallery?

I create the work imagining it in a gallery but I am interested in the portfolio box, with the viewer pulling prints and handling them. I think that this personal experience of handling the prints and interacting with them is interesting, although somewhat problematic; the prints are sensitive and time consuming to make!

Do you have any ideas or plans for future work?

As this is my thesis project, I plan to continue it to some sort of ending at the end of this year, but I do not plan to really end this project until I feel that it is done. I have been working on a series of still lives since last year and plan to continue working in the studio too.

What do you see yourself doing after graduation?

I plan on attending graduate school in photography and then education, hopefully moving out west to Colorado or the southwestern U.S.

John Steck Jr.

What is your senior thesis?

The work I’m doing this semester is about the landscape in which I interact with. About the subtle chances that we overlook and the evolution of a space in a short period of time. It’s about exploring these ideas through different means of communication through photography. It’s about my curiosity with the different ways we can view our surroundings, along with my curiosity for the different processes of photography.

What motivated you to start this project? What inspires your creative process?

I had already been doing some landscape work from the previous semester. I was working on a project about empty plots of land within the local neighborhoods. About how that land affects a neighborhood, through its history and through the psychical appearance of it. I was fairly invested in these ideas and the work. The project ended up spawning into a lot of other paths for me. I ended up with a lot of mini series, such as fences, pathways, views of the prudential from different neighborhoods, etc.. My latest landscape work started to really hone in on little details and subtleties of the places I engaged with.

For the last year I had been working on a series I call Unique c-Prints, sometimes it’s just easier to refer to them as the “photograms” (even though they are not). This work is all done in the color darkroom, and it has allowed me to experience photography in a whole different way. I feel it is at the other end of the spectrum than my other work, but lately, it has started to merge together. My current project is the combination of these two projects, and how they communicate with each other to speak a single language about my curiosity as a photographer.

Do you work in film or digital? Please describe any technique or process relevant to your project.

I only shoot film for my landscapes. Mostly with a 4x5 camera. The “photograms” actually involve no film at all since they are created in the color darkroom. For those I just use the color enlarger and color paper. The objects in the “photograms” I actually place in the enlarger head, as if it were a negative, and I let the light shine through it (or at times it doesn’t shine through) to create an image that explores a different experience with the objects I use. This process allows me to show the details of these objects that we would normally overlook, and at times I am also able to abstract these objects into other creations. The earlier work in this project was more about categorizing and experimentation of the objects, but lately it has become more involved with my interest in the landscape.

Is this a new project or a continuation of previous work?

It is previous work merged together to become new work.
What artists or works of art have inspired or influenced you?
That’s a tough question cause I feel like I’m constantly being inspired from many different mediums. For the projects I’m currently working on, a few names come to mind that I reference a lot, such has Gary Fabian Miller and Karl Blossfeldt, whom both work in similar fashions that I do.

What kind of response do you hope to get from your viewers? Is there a certain experience you want people to take away from your photographs?

Depends on the series. For my current work I like letting the viewer have their own unique experience with the work. I guess every artist wants that, but what I mean is to let each viewer have a different experience from the next viewer. Some of the work in my current series is abstracted enough that one person might see the beauty in it, one might be disgusted, one might be completely confused, or one might see it and go “eh” and then move on. I want all of that. I want praise and I want grunts.

What is the ideal setting to view your work? Do you picture your photographs in a book? In a gallery?

Both really. I have always been open with presentation and forums to getting my work out there. Lately, I have been showing at several different local galleries and artist co-ops, as well as submitting to competitions and online photography sites. I have had a vision of maybe getting into my own book making, exploring different ways of presenting in that from. I would like to see where that could go.

Do you have any ideas or plans for future work?

Well I plan on working on my current project for some time now, but I do have a few other ideas lurking in my head. I am still interested in shooting portraits, which I have done before, but I am still not completely comfortable with it. I want to see where that might go. I also have had an interest in making my art available to the public, as in I have had this urge to start giving away my work. It sounds a little crazy even to me but I want to sit on this idea for a while and see where that leads me. I guess I just want there to be a stronger community in the art world, one where we can start to be selfless and more about effecting others.

What do you see yourself doing after graduation?

After I graduate from Mass Art I plan to go right into a graduate program. I already took two years off after I graduated at NESOP, so I am ready to jump right into that two-year commitment. After grad school I would like to teach and continue working on whatever my work is at that time.

Lara Morgan

What is your senior thesis?

This semester I have not defined what my project is. Initially I intended to photograph within the wine industry in New England. However, this has started in a lack luster way. I have not completely abandoned the idea but am looking at small mom and pop places. Ultimately, I am looking to make great portraits but to also have the opportunity to explore landscapes and still lives. The quality of light and time are of great importance to all three categories.

What motivated you to start this project? What inspires your creative process?

I began this project because I wanted to push myself out of my comfort zone and make work that is very different from what I have made since I have been at MassArt. I am realizing now that I desire to incorporate some of the themes of my previous work into this new way of working and seeing.

Is this a new project or a continuation of previous work?

In some ways what I am working on is both a new project and a continuation of previous work. I feel that the confine of time within school and semesters is limiting and unrealistic. I have been working in a “project” state of mind for the past two years. I feel there are many similarities to the manner I am working now to how I was working just before transferring to MassArt. Perhaps it is an internal feeling of obligation to be a well-rounded photographer before moving on to the next stage of my career. Likewise, I feel it is important for me to step back and make photographs without burdening myself with the rules and regulations of a “project.”

How has your work developed or changed over time?

My use of light has improved tremendously over the past year. I feel that using strobe exclusively for two years has allowed me to view natural light in a different, more articulate way.

What artists or works of art have inspired or influenced you?

My inspiration draws form great portrait photographers including Richard Avedon, Diane Arbus, E.J. Bellocq, and Irving Penn. I also draw inspiration from moving pictures; I am especially fond of film noir, and Alfred Hitchcock films.

What kind of response do you hope to get from your viewers? Is there a certain experience you want people to take away from your photographs?

I desire my viewer to have a strong response to my work, specifically my portraits. I feel that I have achieved something when I take a photograph of someone that transcends language and speaks to the complexity of being human.

What is the ideal setting to view your work? Do you picture your photographs in a book? In a gallery?

I feel that my work can exist in a variety of settings, but my first preference would be a gallery. I tend to make choices in presentation that are linear and traditional, I feel they function best on a wall.

Do you have any ideas or plans for future work?

One project that I have wanted to begin requires me to go back to Tennessee where I was raised. Since leaving, I realize there are many opportunities for my photography. I hope to examine my relationships with people, space and the land, specifically looking to how they have changed.

What do you see yourself doing after graduation?

Immediately after graduation I hope to go to travel, for at least one year, with the intent of making pictures in an entirely different setting and structure. I hope to go to Alaska, to travel through Europe, to spend sometime in my hometown and to go at least one place I have never desired to go- just to see what happens. I plan on applying for graduate school approximately three years after completing my undergraduate studies.

Rachel Hall

What is your senior thesis?

My thesis speaks to the act of adultery, mainly focusing on the emotions and struggles the “other woman” faces. My work will revolve around the moments of passion, remorse, and loneliness, all the while holding each of these moments deep inside as to not let the secret slip.

What motivated you to start this project? What inspires your creative process?

To be honest, personal experience was my motivation. I am inspired by films, novels and paintings, mostly.

Do you work in film or digital? Please describe any technique or process relevant to your project.

I have chosen to work digitally for this project, mainly to get myself prepared, technically, for life outside MassArt.

Is this a new project or a continuation of previous work?

This project came out of left field for me. But it is very exciting at the same time.

How has your work developed or changed over time?

My work has definitely evolved over the years, not only in the technical aspect, but conceptually as well. I began to question myself as to what made me happy while taking pictures.

What artists or works of art have inspired or influenced you?

As I said earlier, I love to watch films and look at paintings. I particularly love to view Edward Hopper and Eric Fishel paintings and such films as Lady Vengeance and In the Mood for Love.

What kind of response do you hope to get from your viewers? Is there a certain experience you want people to take away from your photographs?

I want the viewers to realize the personal experience a woman goes through in that unfortunate situation.

What is the ideal setting to view your work? Do you picture your photographs in a book? In a gallery?

I prefer a gallery setting, but a book isn’t completely out of the question.

Do you have any ideas or plans for future work?

I plan to continue on with this project until I can foresee a comfortable stopping point.

What do you see yourself doing after graduation?

I am hoping to have a job in the field with enough time on the side to continue any personal projects.

Kanga Bell

What is your senior thesis?

I’d like to focus on pleasure, and remind others of its importance. Since I associate pleasure very closely with the primitive, animalistic, and natural, there will be recurring themes of such. I plan to study these themes in relation to each other, as well as what others get pleasure from. To enrich my work, I plan to delve into the basics of sensory pleasure: auditory, somasensory, gustatory, and/or olfactory in addition to vision. My goal is to create multi-sensory experiences within a photographic framework that make the viewer feel happy and inspired.

What motivated you to start this project? What inspires your creative process?

This project is the evolution of the work I’ve been doing for several years. I’ve always valued the realms of nature, life, sex, and euphoria in my art and am building upon that this year. Ultimately what has driven me to create and continue this project is an incredible love for all that lives and breathes, and a growing disdain for civilization and its oppression of said life.

Do you work in film or digital? Please describe any technique or process relevant to your project.

Digital! It’s just more economical, more efficient, and suits my style. Also, I’m not into consuming animal products, and film is made out of animal gelatin so I avoid that.

How has your work developed or changed over time?

From the time I began photographing I’ve seemed to have a particular style, but have since lost it several times in favor of the “proper” way to photograph. I am at the point again of resurrecting it and developing it further, and hopefully will hold onto it. I don’t think that my tastes have changed much – I’m just continuously developing my skill in recognizing and expressing it.

What artists or works of art have inspired or influenced you?

I avoid allowing my work to be influenced by others. There are, however, some times when I discover an artist who is doing similar work and think: THAT IS F****** GREAT!! Jeanne Dunning and Sparky Campanella are my current favorites.

What kind of response do you hope to get from your viewers? Is there a certain experience you want people to take away from your photographs?

Pleasure.

What is the ideal setting to view your work? Do you picture your photographs in a book? In a gallery?

I definitely prefer my work printed large and on a wall versus a book, though I find galleries dreary. Maybe in a restaurant, bedroom, or garden would be preferable – somewhere where one can enjoy oneself.

Do you have any ideas or plans for future work?

At the moment I just want to continue my project, going for what I described of my thesis above.

What do you see yourself doing after graduation?

I want to be a professional food photographer when I grow up. I love food.

You can check out Kanga's website at: kangabell.com

Meredith Alm

What is your senior thesis?

My thesis is a continuation of my junior project. I’m photographing my mother who was recently diagnosed as Bipolar. I’m emphasizing the focus on her mood swings, manic behavior, and deep depression.

What motivated you to start this project? What inspires your creative process?

I was motivated to start this project after hearing many Photographers’ advice to photograph what you love. I took that in the literal sense. She’s the most important person in my life! Also she’s been having a very difficult time, on long-term disability, and really needed some help from her daughter, both emotional and physical. While I have to work during the school year I decided to put my mother into my photographs, killing two birds with one stone. I find her to be one of the most interesting people I know and enjoy photographing her quirks and idiosyncrasies. We spend a lot of time collaborating on images and spend a lot of time reminiscing about the past, which helps to inspire new images as well.

Do you work in film or digital? Please describe any technique or process relevant to your project.

I work completely analog. B&W silver prints from hand-developed negatives, and C-prints from lab developed color negatives.

Is this a new project or a continuation of previous work?

This is a continuation on last semester’s work but one I plan on doing for the rest of her life.

How has your work developed or changed over time?

I’ve become more specific about the work, more about my mother and me and how her illness affects both of us.

What artists/works of art have inspired or influenced you?

I’ve looked at a lot of female photographers like Tierney Gearnon and Elinor Carucci, plus of course Sally Mann and Emmit Gowin. I look at paintings as well as films.

What kind of response do you hope to get from your viewers? Is there a certain experience you want people to take away from your photographs?

I guess I want people to understand the rollercoaster ride of a person with manic depression. But also see how strong our bond is and the role reversals we have in our relationship.

What is the ideal setting to view your work? Do you picture your photographs in a book? In a gallery?

I can see placing some images in a gallery but mainly it belongs in a book.

Do you have any ideas or plans for future work?

I think I’ll run with this for a very long time, perhaps explore more projects dealing with close relationships, mine or other peoples’.

What do you see yourself doing after graduation?

I plan on attending grad school in the next few years and becoming a college photography professor at some point. I love to teach and want to keep the passion I felt in a beginning photography class alive.

Erica Frisk

What is your senior thesis?

“Whenever a man feels the precariousness of his existence he turns to a picture. Here experience holds still and he can look into its face” -Elias Canetti, Novelist

It is through pictures that our earliest memories are confirmed, and re-experienced. While memories may prove to be concrete in some cases, they are never as tangible as an object. It is in the creation of the photograph, a truthful object, that it becomes a confirmation of certain individual truths. These truths not only clarify the experience for the maker but also for the viewer ultimately appeasing both.
It is this idea that I would like to grapple with in my work this semester (or year), the conscious uses of the camera to verify my memories in a manner that is not only visually stimulating but also pushes me to examine my past more. In investigating these images in my mind I may be able to piece together a more informed view of my history for memory its “starting point is seldom the beginning of a narrative”. I would like my pictures to have the same ambiguity that memories often have: fleeting moments of imagery and sound captured in the mind’s eye and in my case with my camera’s lens.

What motivated you to start this project? What inspires your creative process?

I wanted to explore my past more and work sculpturally so I felt this project would meld the two ideas perfectly.

Do you work in film or digital? Please describe any technique or process relevant to your project.

I primarily shoot with film and print with traditional silver gelatin processes, but with this project, I plan on using liquid emulsion to superimpose my images on objects that are significant from my past.

Is this a new project or a continuation of previous work?

This is an entirely new project that I hope to develop over course of the year.

How has your work developed or changed over time?

I feel that my subject matter has evolved continuously because with the finishing on each new project I strive to do a project that is completely different. So far I’ve explored photographing my family, an abandoned school, and self-portraiture while dabbling in landscape photography.

What artists/ works of art have inspired or influenced you?

I’d say that the artists that have influenced me are Felix Gonsalez-Torres, Francesca Woodman and Sally Mann because of their visual style and the ideas that their work takes on.

What kind of response do you hope to get from your viewers? Is there a certain experience you want people to take away from your photographs?

I don’t necessarily want a certain reaction from the viewers. I’m not making my photographs for shock value or for overt political reasons, so I guess I’d want my viewers to not just see my photographs, but I’d want them to connect to them viscerally.

What is the ideal setting to view your work? Do you picture your photographs in a book? In a gallery?

I could see my two-dimensional work in both settings but my three-dimensional work would be best seen in person.

Do you have any ideas or plans for future work?

I have a lot of ideas about future work and I’ve written them down for later because I don’t think it’s the right time for me to pursue them. I started a Home Series in my sophomore year at Massart that I’ve continued to add to that archive slowly.

What do you see yourself doing after graduation?

I plan on eventually going to grad school for either arts administration or film production, but before I do that I’d like to move somewhere completely different and join an artist collective.