BFA Student Work

Is your memory “photographic”? If someone claims to have a photographic memory, they generally mean that they can recall specific details of events they have experienced. Do they see those details as a vision frozen in time? When it comes to media that represents memory and time, film and photography are seen as different ends of a spectrum. Film represents time through many subsequent moments while photography shows one isolated slice of time. Neither of these conventions represent the way I experience memories. While I can often recall details of the important sights and sounds of my day-to-day life, I know that they are not objective. My memories don’t appear as a single moment, clearly preserved, nor do they play in my mind’s eye like a participatory viewing experience. Time and space become subjective recollections once you’re no longer directly observing them.

In my project, “Collected Recollection: This Picture Is Not One Moment”, I capture moments closer to how I remember the world. With my photos, I seek to convey memories as fragmented points in time rather than a filmic progression of events.

To view more of Thomas's work, please visit his website.

Sam's project focused on capturing images from local skatepark. His photos ranged from images of skaters mid-trick to the minute details that create a skateboard.

To view more of Sam's work, please visit his website. 

Water gambles in dualism. It grants the means to live, but it also flirts with the rules of destruction as it carves, whittles, and gouges at the earth, carrying its essence downstream. The interplay of water and geology is sometimes quiet and slow, yet other times thunderous and deafening. Through my project, Tether, I connect water’s inherent destructive powers to its often soft and gentle behavior of breathing life back into the earth by highlighting the interdependency of both processes. Tether invites the audience to take an active stance on water’s dualistic nature by presenting a timeless and universal concept from a spiritual perspective, providing the means to observe and reevaluate one’s own relationship to this all-pervasive resource. By combining long exposure photography with physical camera movements, a new context evolves that eclipses the conventional understanding of time and translates the scenes into ceaseless testaments of the incredible power of water. From canyons and waterfalls to mossy undergrowth and raindrops on thirsty soil, water takes the tools to live and gives them to all those who patiently wait for the flood.