Jeremy Powitz

What is your senior thesis?

I pay a lot of attention to the options for entering adulthood that my contemporaries have. There is no one clear way to become autonomous, no attainable right-of-passage that guarantees wisdom and livelihood. The culture around me only grants age with time; anything else is hard-won. With my camera, I illustrate a bit of what I observe and a bit of what I read.

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

My own struggle with 'what next' comes to mind…

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

I love the way I work with a large ground-glass. The economy and decisions that System and View Cameras demand suit me well, so I shoot film, but I do my post production and printing digitally.

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

This is not too unrelated to my work from last term, but it's somewhat different.

How has your work developed or changed over time?

My work continues to develop as I learn more. It's usually something I can only identify after a few months, in retrospect, though.

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

I'm very taken with The Door in the Floor right now (2004 Focus Features)

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?

A country's youth of about 16 to 25 is perhaps its most useful resource. That's why militaries and the like are always comprised of this age group. I just find it interesting that that's sort of the abandoned age group in our current culture. We're expected to go from being children to adults overnight, but there doesn't seem to be a real job or place for us while we make that transformation. I hope to draw my viewers' interest to this.

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

I think a book might suit these photos best.

Do you have any ideas or plans for future work?

My plan is mainly just to keep shooting, for now.

What do you see yourself doing after graduation?

After graduation, eh? I find myself running into the scope of my own project in answering that. Maybe grad school… Probably a job.