I am a digital photographer.  I wield a digital camera and construct images mainly focusing on the formal aspects of the subject, most of which is architecture.  I achieve this usually through finding the right angle from which to take the photograph, which is generally a strange or oblique one.  The forms these camera angles create I find appealing, as I like how something as structured as architectural features can be indirectly manipulated to create interesting forms. 

 I find my work to be rather reminiscent of Ezra Stoller’s (1915-2004).  One of the foremost architectural photographers in the US between the late 1930s and late 1980s, he photographed buildings such as the Guggenheim Museum and the United Nations in New York City, and the John Hancock Center in Chicago.  Many of these photographs focused on the formal and spatial aspects of the then-modern architecture.  He worked with big name architects of the day, such as Frank Lloyd Wright and I.M. Pei, among others.  While not directly inspired by him, I have noticed a fair amount of similarities between his work and mine.

 While I love photography and have been doing it for a couple of years now, I entered the game fairly late.  Indeed, I transferred into Northeastern University in September 2015 as a Journalism student.  I quickly found out, however, that such a thing wasn’t for me, and I began looking around for other options.  I found photography, something which I found fun and was something in which I was already interested.  About halfway through that semester, I changed majors to Media Arts: Photography Concentration, and have never looked back.  I know it very much sounds like the Path of Least Resistance, but I have worked diligently since my Photo Basics course in the fall of 2016 to develop my craft and skill as a photographer.

 The theory I adhere to the most in my work is Pictorialism, which is defined as photography whose intention and expression is derived from fine art, rather than being only scientific, documentary, or commercial.  This theory was the main operating principle of the Photo-Secession, a group of photographers in the early 1900s that was headed by Alfred Stieglitz.  I very much view photography to be a fine art, and have been trained to take photographs artistically and constructing images rather than simply recording what I was seeing.

 In terms of inspirations, I have several indirect ones.  They include music, art, and even film.  An example of this is Christopher Nolan’s film, The Dark Knight, which is my absolute favorite movie.  A few of the photos I have taken have a blue color palette and streaks of various bright, warm colors such as orange and red providing stark contrast to it that is similar to the film’s.  Another example of this would be George Gershwin’s orchestral jazz piece “Rhapsody in Blue,” my absolute favorite piece of orchestral music.  Ever since I first saw Disney’s film Fantasia 2000, I have always connected the piece with New York City, and the piece is playing inside my head on many an occasion when I am in Manhattan, especially when photographing.  A third example is Piet Mondrian’s Composition II in Red, Blue, and Yellow (1930).  A photograph I took on a Dialogue of Civilizations course in Germany I felt was very reminiscent of the piece, and even commented on said reminiscence.

 All in all, I love what I do and hope to continue doing it in the future.  The things I photograph are important – either generally or to me – and I wish to show my unique vision of these important things to others.