1. Describe your connection to photography as a means of expression, as well as your point of view as an artist.
Photography acts as my third eye. With my physical eyes, I see; through my camera lens, I capture moments. By freezing moments of continuously moving life, I seek to preserve the moments we cherished, and to keep a record of how past myself viewed the world through this lens. By photography, I express my feelings; I express it by utilizing wildlife: animals also have feelings. I leverage the animals’, or an insects’ action to indirectly portray my feelings to my audiences. By using animals, primarily birds, that live in my area, I sought to capture different scenes, particularly the ones that us humans can connect to. By utilizing photography, I freeze time to express myself, and to keep a record of change in my vision as a human and a photographer.
2. Explain the work in your portfolio: why you made these works, the techniques used and the series throughline or relationship to you as an artist.
I made these artworks to connect animals’ everyday livelihood to human’s everyday life. Zooming out, I saw that humans and animals had many commonalities: emotions, hunger, movement, living environment, etc. I wanted to document these common factors and compare the similarities and differences between everyday animals’ and everyday humans’ life. Some techniques I utilized were focusing into one specific area to provide attention to one part of the image, while leaving the background somewhat intact, in order to give the viewers context of the image and the surrounding environment. I compare not only animals’ actions, but also their body shapes and other relevant factors to effectively convey my message of the nonexistent difference between human and animal life.
