Artist Statement
This final project, entitled “Life With(out) Color,” aimed to sharpen my overall photography skills as well as showcase an interesting theme of capturing dramatic landscapes in black and white and framed identically. I really liked the idea of my title being a subtle nod to the actual components of this portfolio. As for wanting to photograph in black and white, I have always felt that black and white can create a lot of emotion and add drama to already dramatic scenes. I think that color can sometimes distrace the human eye from the magnitude of the landform, whether that be a mountain peak or range, desert hoodoos, or a long canyon. While shooting these photos throughout the semester, I always had this idea in the back of my mind for the final portfolio, so I wanted to curate a handful of photos that were dramatic, pleasing to the eye and most of all, would look incredible in black and white. I chose to edit the photographs similarly to create cohesion, playing a very soft, low contrast look on each of the photos, and I chose to frame the photos in 16x9, as I wanted to achieve the look of looking at different landscapes through the same lens. I think this subtle, commonly overlooked part of editing, made a world of difference in aesthetic value of the portfolio as a whole. Overall, I am very happy with these images and the theme of this portfolio, and hope to grow my craft from this first display.
