Introduction
I am an international student hailing from the United States and have been studying at Queensland University of Technology for an academic year. My time abroad in Australia has been an exciting, yet challenging journey. Not only have I had to adapt to another country and its culture, but I have also had to maintain my academic progress. Living in Australia has given me independence and strength to grow as a person, making me ever more cognisant about the world I am living in and appreciate its beauty.
I am interested in photography because of its ability to impact generations. As we continue to live in a global world, photography is a universal communicator with its innate ability to traverse barriers of language. The cliché is that a photo speaks a thousand words still holds true. Whether they are photographs of love or pain, its message can be conveyed visually, allowing people to connect with one another.
As I have spent a year in Australia studying and travelling, I have become more fascinated with silhouettes and shadows. I gained my inspiration for my folio from a trip to Great Keppel Island. I captured a person walking alone, along a beach and into the sunset, and loved the feeling of isolation and loneliness. I knew the photograph best expressed how I felt at that particular moment in time and began to capture other moments to describe how my experience in Australia has been. I wanted to conceptualise the feelings of loneliness, freedom, growth, independence, strength, challenge, beauty, friendships, and education into a body of work to express what this voyage has been like for me.
I decided to shoot using the technique of silhouettes and shadows because of the dramatic mood that is created. The images seem to pop out and do not give the viewer all of the details. Instead, the audience is allowed to interpret how to perceive the body of work themselves, making the images much more personal. I value the simplicity of these shapes to describe and reflect upon my experience living thousands of miles away from friends and family.
I believe my photographs depict this feeling of openness and my curiosity of adapting to the environment around me. I decided to print the photographs as squares, feeling the shapes simulated windows, as if I am looking at each image with the willingness to become vulnerable and ultimately learn from the environment I am in.
This body of work was orginally produced for my Photomedia and Artistic Practice course in Brisbane, Australia October 2006. I decided to reproduce my work on the web for others to view and enjoy.
