Emma Brown, Photography
Artist Statement
I have always enjoyed taking photographs ever since I was younger, whether it was on my phone or point and shoot camera. Photography is something that I knew from a young age would be part of my life, but I always believed it to be a hobby only. My freshman year of college I was undeclared and during my sophomore year I majored in communications even though there was no passion or true interest behind that decision. I felt lost in deciding my major until the summer following my sophomore year when I decided to transfer to the College to study photography. I have appreciated photography because it allows me to express myself and show my own perspective and feelings on a subject as well as seeing other people’s views and perspectives. With photography you can use it in different ways such as documentation and self-expression.
My work is grouped together into a series of photographs that explore various ways of abstracting reality as well as documenting it in the forms of architecture, nature and the mundane. I have transformed the subjects and their forms by using light, leading lines, different photographic processes and visual planning of my subject to create a minimalistic appearance. The photographic processes you see here are Silver Gelatin, Cyanotype, Salt Print, Gum Bichromate and digital photographs. I find joy in working with both natural lighting as well as studio lighting since both give such a difference sense of feeling to them. Studio lighting gives a more controlled and planned out approach and feeling to it which I enjoy, whereas natural lighting is something one has less control over. I have to work with or around it.
The images of architecture and nature displayed here without any sort of human interaction demonstrates more of a documentary photography approach to the objects than a preplanned shoot such as the photographs of the mundane abstract everyday objects such as the silverware. Leading lines are a device I like to use in my Photography and can be seen here in documenting man-made objects as well as nature.
