BFA Essay
Alee Harding
Photography Emphasis
I first
started to understand that photography was something I really enjoyed doing
right before my Junior year of high school. It was the first year that I wasn’t
able to participate in either dance or cheerleading, which were two really big aspects
of my life that defined me at the time. I needed something to do to keep me
busy, so I joined the yearbook committee and continued with that throughout my
senior year.
I am constantly learning new things
that I like about photography. I find myself looking at everyday things in a
way that starts to generate ideas for me to build upon and use for future work.
In Tattoo Session, I started out with
this idea of showing how tattoos can be a meaningful, physical representation of
something personal for someone. I started to think about how to get to that point
with my photography. I had to take these pictures to try and access the rest of
that thought. Though the series doesn't entirely capture what I wanted, they are out of my head and
ultimately sparked another idea that I wouldn’t have gotten to without having
taken them. I plan on revisiting my original idea on my own because I feel like
there is something there.
My goal with my most recent work, Still Life, was to represent important
people in my life. Each piece holds something that is a reminder to me of what
I love and cherish about that person. This work challenged me in many ways, teaching me something new about myself and forcing me to think about lighting in a
way that is a new concept for me.
I have been challenged to the point
of wanting to give up. I still have days that I feel like giving up but I was
lucky enough to have a professor show me a quote by Ira Glass. In this quote he
talks about beginners in a creative process having all these ambitions but,
always being disappointed by their own work because of this gap between what
they want and their skill. He says it is normal and “the most important thing
you can do is do a lot of work”. So when
I get into a funk about my work I just have to remember to push through. These
rough patches that I have, everyone else has too. The only way to get through
them is to continue to do work.
My goal is
to continue to push myself by doing more self-directed work. I want to be able
to better articulate my ideas and be able to come up with interesting ways of
showcasing those ideas. I believe that the BFA will help me with these goals and push me to in the direction of being a better artist.
