Thesis
A final project— together. Part 2/3 of Undergrad: A series on ending well. Sponsored by The Pennsylvania College of Art and Design.
Thesis was a 3 week hands on learning experience that explored concept design and production skills in the context of editorial photography.
I wanted to share with others the same opportunities extended to me at the beginning of my career as an artist. Someone invited me into a large scale creative project, asked for my input and ideas, and then gave me the freedom to actualize it with the weighty knowledge of “the public is going to see this”.
Ideation
Week one and two took place in the middle of Dreamwrights’ Costume Department where students could absorb inspiration and real world experience alongside working artists. We wrote characters, storylines, and shot lists, while dreaming up ways to emulate those ideas in costume, makeup, model selection, and location.
Before we got into the nitty gritty of WHAT we were making, we had round table discussions on WHO was making it… with questions like:
What core messaging is important for me to communicate?
What standards do I want to hold myself to (ethics, messaging, quality, etc)?
Who is my audience and what are they aching to hear?
What personal examples can I draw from as inspiration?
I was really proud of this group… They made room for everyone to speak, have an opinion, disagree, and for the mentors of the group to share their advice. In addition to developing our photoshoot concept, they also offered ideas for the installation and atmosphere we would reveal the imagery through at Commencement.
Execution
Week Three was bringing these ideas to life in a multi-set photoshoot directed by myself and photographed by Gretchen Nevin and Obscura Studios at the Grotto Commons.
Inviting people into the experience of directing is interesting to watch as it is equally effortless as it is challenging. As I see people dance with this tension it creates more inspirations within myself. Energy creates more energy when you’re with the right people, and nothing is as inspiring than their “aha” moment of “I can do this too”.
With a perfectly structured plan, or a fluid plan, a shoot of this size and detail requires juggling a lot of pieces under a lot of pressure. If you miss something, you can’t go back so you want to unflinchingly aim for the target, BUT, you also want to leave flexibility for new inspiration to seep in. I’m often tempted to take over for the sake of not missing anything, so having other people involved is a great practice for myself and reminder that ideas don’t belong to any one person— you need to leave room for them to come and go as they please through whoever they please.
Post Production
Our main storyline was the internal struggle & reconciliation between past, present & future self reflected in the themes of childhood, and adulthood.
After the photoshoot day, Gretchen, Rachel, and I had the most control over how the story was told by selecting frames we thought told the narrative our group had designed best. Gretchen especially carried the responsibility of layering their photos together as a double exposure to show the “wrestling within”.
Exhibit Preparation
Our students were stepping into the next phase of art. Not just “being creative”, but creating with purpose, creating something to be seen with a message to be received. Our hope was to create an immersive art experience that melded our pre-made work with artists creating in real time for a layered experience with a palpable heartbeat.
Wanna see how it turned out? Check out Commencement!
