I Care
(To view the separate collections click on their name)
The subject of my project is college students in particular depicted through black and white portraiture. A population of individuals which are recovering from growing pains and trauma of childhood and teenage years while simultaneously finding their identity, purpose, and holistic autonomy. This cataclysm of tasks which they must surmount can be crippling when that does not include then managing the many nuances of life. These experiences are explored through long style single interviews which dictate the composition of the portraiture of each collaborator. Images are then combined with audio through video so that the audience may have insight to the feelings of the individuals shown in this work.
I believe that this process of venting and conversation is revealing and can help individuals process the moment in time in which they exist. On the public level, while I prefer to maintain a certain level of confidentiality to my dear subjects, I find that there are feelings beyond the details of their trauma which every human can connect to and is congruent with in our lifetimes no matter the experiences which we either share or do not. It is specifically the emotions, the thoughts, and the ways we cope beyond the traumatic experiences which I want to focus on. The goal is not to make you sad or pitiful, the goal is to provide insight into this demographic’s thoughts in emerging adolescence, how humans mature in this current period, and how this generation has to manage finding time to be an adult while enjoying a fleeting youth. It is unfortunate that when the biggest concerns should be that big paper or a midterm it often is that it can be having a safe place to call home, staying financially stable, or burying our best friend which as one of my collaborators had said to paraphrase is an older person’s problem. I simply want awareness and a safe space in which individuals can see that we share many emotions and experiences and can be productive to talk about it even if we have doubts.
