Finished project:

First assignment was a collection of 20 silhouettes created from a prompt of animal-plant hybrids.

All of these have some basis in science; either through the similar environments both species live in, or similar life patterns, biologic features, or even time periods these species existed in.

There's many cases of convergent evolution on Earth, and I'd imagine, given the opportunity and circumstances, that plant / animal hybrids could theoretically evolve in the same manner; occupying specific niches, developing food webs based on size, defense, proliferation. etc.  I opted for make a broad range of organisms, rather than focus on a select few in a specific environment; this allowed me to demonstrate a larger sample of these creatures rather than a grouping of too similar ones.

Below are the two pages of source material that I used to jump-start the idea process behind this project.

Project: Create 20 silhouettes of fictional plant/animal hybrids.

Inspiration: This noble beast

Photo inspiration: NASA experimenting with food dye and seltzer tablets in zero-G

(I want to model that sphere so bad; those colors!)

Project 1a: Reference Material

Skybax Canyon, James Gurney, for Dinotopia series. 1992. accessed 10.13.2015

Crysis 3 concept art, developed by Crytek, published by Electronic Arts. accessed 10.13.2015

Dishonored trailer still, developed by Arkane Studios and published by Bethesda Software. accesed10.13.2015

Untitled photograph by Jordan Land, February 2015

Ashland Varsity Theater and Ashland Springs Hotel, photograph rights belong to AIFF, April 2014. accessed 10.13.2015

6th Street Cityscape in Black and White by Lori_Bucci_Photography 2014. accessed 10.13.2015

Hummingbird Garden, Far Out Flora. July 2014. accessed 10.13.2015

 Disneyland entrance, unidentified photographer. accessed 10.13.2015

Cota Street Studios, Melissa Birch. accessed 10.13.2015

Untitled work by Rui Palha, Oct 2012, accessed 10.13.2015

My goal is to photograph horizons.  Not the sunsets and sunrises of our day to day life, but the veiled border between the observable and the unknown.  I want to be an explorer, a scientific archivist, and a collector of images by my own hand that I can share with and hopefully inspire others.  This takes me to the smallest details, the immaculate symmetrical perfection of plants and animal life, or on a broader scope, analyzing the landscape for patterns and abstract reality.

My most common medium is digital photography, though I’m continually pushing myself to explore the physical benefits and techniques offered by film.  I also utilize scenography to better capture small details.  I enjoy blending the physical film media with digital scanograpy as well.

As a contemporary photography student, every project is a new challenge for me as well as a learning experience.  I have a strong distaste for repeating work; why delve into the familiar when there’s so much unexplored in one’s personal world as well as the bigger environment?  That doesn’t mean I don’t learn from previous mistakes, or deny the opportunity to extrapolate off earlier works.  I just actively avoid repeating them without change or progress.

My goals are to open up new worlds for the viewer.  In my last gallery showing, ‘Botany’, I displayed a series of large scenography prints of plants from my own collection.  Audiences pulled a variety of meanings from this, varying from a scientific analysis of plants to noting the balance within the plants structure.  But the underlying goal was achieved, to take these normally miniscule, unnoticed specimens and bring them under the light of the enlarger. 

As a environmental studies major, my purpose will always have an air of education to it.  In this time of crisis, as anthropological climate change throws the ecological foundation of our planet into chaos, it is vastly important to recognize what’s being lost, in a desperate attempt to preserve what’s left.  Sex sells car ads but it’s cute pandas that sell environment protections.  The subjects, the landscapes, that I take, will hopefully bring to attention one more plight, hopefully capture the eye of one more person. 

I want to share my photography, the techniques, the subject, the meaning, with everyone I come in contact with.  But over all, I want to share in the appreciation and realized stewardship that we have of this, our only world.