Artist Bio
Ava is a junior at Allendale Columbia School. Based in Rochester, she has been traveling to New York City for many years. Ava has been interested in photography since the sixth grade and has combined her love of reading and writing with photography as she has pursued some projects in photojournalism. Aside from photography, Ava is passionate about music and dance. She has been a dancer for 11 years, and she spends her free time assistant directing and stage managing theater productions. Ava’s photography has been featured in the annual “Through the Student Lens” high school photography exhibition at Image City Photography Gallery. She hopes to continue studying photography throughout the rest of high school.
Thesis Statement
Photography has always been my medium of choice, and over the past couple of years, I have had a growing interest in photojournalism, specifically, and had the opportunity to document some protests. This year, I wanted to combine my interest in photojournalism and thriller movies and use a gas mask for my project. I thought it would be interesting to depict what the world could look like if gas masks were necessary for daily life. My thesis project explores the feelings evoked by images of everyday people wearing a gas mask.
Although I usually like film photography, I decided to pursue digital photography for this project because it is a more efficient process than film. I gathered together some friends and family and had them pose with a mask. I took different approaches for different series of pictures. Some were staged to look like a movie poster, and some were meant to look more candid and realistic. I drew inspiration from the darkness of thriller movies and played around with light, shadows, and desaturation when editing in Adobe Photoshop. The mask is an unnatural part of our daily lives, and I tried to play off of that unsettling aspect by creating a creepy atmosphere reflected by many horror movies.
While working on this project, I learned more about using light and shadow to change the atmosphere of my photos. The darkness and contrast that I exhibited in these images create a moody and ominous look. I enjoyed creating these pictures and I would like to do something similar in the future.
Gallery
Above: Digital Photographs.