Thesis!

Thesis... Yikes!

I have been attending the Art Institute long enough now that I have been asked to come up with a thesis and explore it until I finish my degree. It has been an extremely frustrating, nerve-racking, emotional week trying to come up with an idea that I could explore for my last year at school; but alas- my idea has been approved! Here it is:

“Less is more”, said by German-American architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. I would like to explore the details of architecture for my thesis, showing off the fact that sometimes the less people see, the more they will actually see and appreciate.

            All the time our brains are working to correct the images that we witness 24/7. Light enters into the eye, much like it does into a camera lens, and records a reversed image upside-down on our retinas. Our brain is remarkably fast enough to flip this image and record it in our minds correctly before we would ever have the chance to realize we saw something upside-down. My goal for these photographs is to challenge the viewer’s brain. To have a very quick second where the viewer doesn’t realize that they are looking at a building. In this moment, hopefully, they will see a building briefly as an abstract piece of work. I want them to move through an architect’s art piece much like they would with a painting or a sculpture.

            As photographers we have the ability to reinterpret things much like the brain. We can choose what we want the viewer to see. I want to limit them to certain sections of buildings so that they may appreciate them for what they really are- works of art. Many people look down upon buildings since we live in a time when we’re realizing our environment is decaying. What people don’t see is the craftsmanship and the thought that architects put into these buildings to make them stand out from the one that is right across the street.

            I will shoot all of the photos midday, from 12pm to 6pm, in order to allow deep, harsh shadows shape the building. I want to experiment with reflections and repeating shapes and patterns to make almost a “cubist” style of work. The details will be enough to show the movement of the building, but never the entire building as a whole. Ming Thein did a similar photo essay, and I would like to work closely to what he did. He shot his in Tokyo and was showing the fact that all of their buildings are only 6 inches apart, so it’s difficult sometimes to tell where one ends and one begins.

I'm really looking forward to shooting this, and I hope I can shoot it just like I have it imagined! I will make sure to share the entire process with you all as I close my last year here at AIS!