Chroma: Activism

magazine

ACTIVISM june 2019

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magazine A publication celebrating young & talented creatives from the VSAA photography community and beyond.

Volume 4 Issue 3 June 2019 Editor: Mami Silva Advisor: Abby Davis Staff: 11 issuu.com/chromamagazine chromamag2015@gmail.com All photographs belong to the artists and have been published with their permission. DO NOT copy or share any images without explicit permission from Chroma Magazine.

Thank you for respecting the photographers featured and the integrity of their work.

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EDITORS Letter dear readers, This year at VSAA our schools theme was centered around activism and how we use art speak up against tough issues the world faces us with. I believe everyone has something they’re passionate about whether it be climate change, women’s rights, gay rights; the list goes on and on as an artist we are able to use our art as a language to speak to people on these issues. People like Banksy or the Guerrilla Girls show us how they use their artistic voice to stand up for what they believe is right.

This month to uphold the theme we decided to make an issue dedicated to what we believe in and show to the world our truth through photography. Every single person on our team is very passionate and really used this months Chroma to speak their truth.

I hope that after finishing this issue you find inspiration use your voice to stand up for what’s right and don’t hold back.

Thank you so much readers I hope you enjoy Chroma: Activism.

mami silva, editor 5

CONTENT STAFF GALLERY abby davis // page 1

alex wheatley // page 7 annabel koral // page 14 grayson molyneaux // page 20 jacob reppeto // page 26 jane greene // page 32 madisen liljedahl // page 39 maeve gribble // page 45 mami silva // page 52 marley fouts-carrico // page 60 olivia vanis // page 66 reyli quinonez // page 76 nadia stupski // page 84 Cover: Annabel Koral pg.15

SLOW DOWN

ABBY DAVIS

According to a recent study by Nielsen market research, American adults spend more than 11 hours per day staring at a screen. Our screens include computers, iPads, smart phones, etc...I am one of those adults. I find myself trying to remember what life was like before texting and Instagram. Life was less interrupted, more hands on.

Slow Down is a series of darkroom photographs that I created as a form of self activism. I put down my phone and sustained uninterrupted focus in the darkroom. Light is an important tool in the darkroom, which means that unintended light from a cell phone can ruin an image. There are no phones in the darkroom. By putting down the phone and entering the sacred space of the darkroom, I attempted to disconnect from technology and get my hands dirty with analog photography.

After my prints dried, I used darkroom touch up pens and white acrylic paint to embellish highlights and darken shadows. I often feel a strong desire to paint the light in photographs, especially rim lighting or light rays. The added paint on top of the film photographs allowed me to physically experience painting the light. My two loves, painting and photography, became collaborators with this series.

This series didn’t change my life or elevate me to a new-no-phone spiritual practice. I still look at my phone more than is healthy. The series serves to remind me to put the phone down. I might just do it again.

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Models: Olivia Harris, Leo Harris, Angelique Sanders, Roxy Fast 2

Location: VSAA 3

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ALEX WHEATLEY

DEEPWATER

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My series was created by using a fake oil, a fish tank, and natura oceans and pollution, pulling this works title from the deep water

paintings and an MLA research paper based on the same or simila

my activism. I believe we have to fight to protect our se

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al lighting. This series was made to represent how we mistreat our horizon incident in 2010. In school this year I created a series of

ar themes of marine conservation, my connection to our oceans is

eas and even through art awareness can be achieved.

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Y’ALl Eat THIS? ANNABEL KORAL

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Models: Ben Kautz, Olivia H

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Harris, Grayson Molyneaux

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WHAT WERE YOU WEARING? GRAYSON MOLYNEAUX The phrase “what were you wearing?” is used to blame victims of sexual assault for the actions of their abusers. People believe that the outfit that a person is wearing is an excuse for them to be sexually abused or assaulted. I took portraits of sexual assault survivors in places where victims are commonly assaulted.

I asked my models to show the anger that they felt towards their abusers, and the people who continue to support their abusers. Support and advocacy for survivors tends to be performative, especially in a school or work place setting.

Many people claim to be supportive of victims of sexual abuse, but as soon as supporting them becomes inconvenient they back away and make excuses for the actions of the abusers. I wanted to show that survivors don’t all look the same, and regardless of the outfit they were wearing or any other circumstances it is never the victim’s fault.

Models: Grayson Molyneaux, Elliot Seaman, Mami Silva, Ben Kautz, Maeve Gribble 20

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SHUT UP

JACOB REPPETO When the prompt of “Art as Activism” was approached, it was just after the issue “It’s Complicated…” was flagged for inappropriate content due to my series “Obsessed.” The series featured me torso-up shirtless, in the celebrancy of self-love. Issu.com flagged my series as adult content, because I have a larger chest or “manboobs” in slang talk. Chroma’s exposure was diminished because of my series, and the magazine was censored from general the public. This unjustified and unfair action from Issu.com encouraged me to do a series on censorship. I wanted to showcase a few different ways everyday people are censored & have every piece of media “filtered” due to different circumstances. We are censored on everything we see, everything we hear, in so many ways we dont even notice.

I wanted to capture this series on censorship in film, to put a twist on expressing the overall message of censorship and prevent the conversation of things being cliche. I hope in the future I can expand the conversation with future series, but for now, here’s “shut up”

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ANONYMITY JANE GREENE

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Women have long been treated as lesser. Though great strides have been made towards equality, many women still live in the shadow of men. There are a multitude of unfair stereotypes and roles that have been assigned to women despite the fact that there is no one right way to be a woman. With that in mind, I decided to base my series off of some of these stereotypes. I had my models embrace roles thought of as traditionally female such as cooking, cleaning, and putting on makeup.

I also had them wear masks to represent the way in which women in the past were often forced to remain anonymous in their work. Masks have historically been used in protests as symbols of rebellion and revolt. With the combination of stereotypes and masks, I tried to create an unsettling feel with my photos.

I wanted my audience to see how strange and eerie it can be to simply dismiss women as nothing more than an anonymous stereotype.

Women deserve to be seen and recognized for all their accomplishments and abilities.

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ATTENTION MADISEN LILJEDAHL

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For my series, I took portraits that I feel embody power and beauty through makeup. Although makeup is often colorful, I chose to edit the photos black and white to create greater contrast and a more serious mood for the photos. People often view makeup as fake and ugly, but through my photos I wanted to show a different side of it, and how powerful it made my model look.

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Although makeup is not necessary to survive, it can be a creative expression of ones’ self and their beauty ideals.

Whether you wear makeup or not, you should respect others’ choice to wear and enjoy it.

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BUBBLES MAEVE GRIBBLE

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bubbles. anxiety makes me feel like bubbles.

Bubbles are anxiety.

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butterfly 52 52

MAMI SILVA

Something common in Asian culture, and to be honest parts of this still reside in other cultures, is a lack of women empowerment. Asian cultures are still very used to this traditional setting. As an asian woman watching LOONA’s Butterfly, it brought me to tears. I have never in my life seen a korean music video include such a wide range of diversity, and such an important message to women. It is so uncommon to see the celebration of dark skin, of muslim women, of people who are different than you in one music video. In fact, I would say it’s extremely rare in Northeast Asian culture. Butterfly isn’t only a beautiful song, it is so impactful, and means so much to me. LOONA is such a small and underappreciated group of artists with only 30 employees (12 being the members themselves), and to see them go for something inclusive, genuinely inclusive, I feel so powerful. It makes me proud to be who I am, who I was born to be. Butterfly made me go out and appreciate the powerful women around me, who inspire me and who I truly see the beauty in. The power and energy women hold is unstoppable, and LOONA does nothing but confirm that. The stories and rights women have earned themselves is so empowering, we create our own future. LOONA isn’t afraid to take the first step to spread this narrative.

Models: Amelia Kim, Annabel Koral, Olivia Turpin, Cassy Akimseu-Arnold.

Madisen Liljedahl 53

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The title Butterfly is a reference to two things. The song and the music video are trying to say that women deserve to be free, spread their wings, “Fly like a butterfly.” They deserve to freely be themselves, and do what they desire with no regrets. In the video, you see several women, of all backgrounds, moving freely and running throughout the entire music video. Butterfly also refers to the butterfly effect. When something small happens, something huge can come from it, such as a flap of a butterflies wings creating a tornado. Butterfly is the flutter of the wings, it’s the start of a movement. It’s the beginning of women accepting themselves, loving themselves in asian media, and normalizing it. It may not blow your mind the first time you watch it, you may not watch it at all (but please stream Butterfly), but realize that this is still a new idea in asian media, this a very rare opportunity.

It’s the spark that starts the fire. LOONA is an amazing group full of talented women and they inspire me to be who I am.

All women should be proud of who they are. To all my fellow women who do read this Chroma please smile for the person you are. You are special and your voice matters no matter how small. Do not be afraid to be the spark that starts the flame.

Stan LOONA.

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LEGS

DAYS

MARLEY FOUTS-CARRICO Legs are something that most people in this world have. In this series I chose to showcase the legs of women. I chose to do this to serve as a commentary on social standards for women. There is a lot of stigmatization around womens legs. Women are expected to have perfect toned hairless legs that are smooth and flawless.

I wanted to showcase everyday women who have everyday legs and attempt to decrease stigma against the societal norms we as people are subject too.

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fighting poverty with the tree of life OLIVIA VANIS 66

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In our American society, it is often very easy for us to forget just how huge the world is outside of ourselves and our country, and we often neglect to recognize how much of the world lives in immense poverty unfathomable to us. We forget just how much of the world lives off a dollar a day, and how many people struggle to function normally due to excessive malnutrition. And even when we do know these facts, because it is not in our direct presence, it is easy for us to ignore the reality of this and decide that there is nothing we can do about it.

When we look back in history we know that the reason there is inequality across the globe (when it comes to the average income of families and the overall health of people) is because the historical development of countries is dependent upon what plants and animals are natural to that region. Certain elements that grow in specific climates are more versatile, sustainable, and can be made into more things than that of other regions. This is the reason why countries like the United States have developed to be more wealthy than countries in regions such as Africa, where the climate is dry and the soil is unable to successfully grow many crops. When a country does not have good means of growing things that will lead to further production and development, it stays stuck in time, and levels of poverty are much greater than that of regions with better cropland.

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There is a plant that has the potential to change this condition, and it is called Moringa, in some countries also called the Tree of Life. Moringa contains very high levels of protein, calcium, and iron, and because of this in areas where people suffer from malnutrition it gives them nutrients that are very hard to find elsewhere and can help reverse the effects of malnutrition and restore a person’s quality of life. Moringa grows very fast and in large quantities in very dry, dusty climates where very little things grow. The seeds of the Moringa tree can also purify water when crushed and mixed with dirty water. When the tree is introduced to a community, the people are in turn healthier, happier, have a better overall quality of life, and have a material that can also bring a possible source of income. Planting Moringa trees helps the environment, and leads to a more prosperous population.

Moringa provides a way to fight hunger across the globe with something as beautiful as a plant. When we spread the word and knowledge about Moringa to people across the world, (especially through art) we help to take steps forward toward making the world a more equal place, and we bring new life to people. It is up to us to spread the word and get involved with this movement. It is also up to us to decide whether we are willing to overlook the walls that separate our countries from each other, and try and shift our perspectives to see that we are all one body of people working together, and that when people on the other side of the world live happier, we in turn will also find ourselves to feel the same.

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Who we are REYLI QUINONEZ For as long as I can remember, I’ve heard certain things about people like me. Mexican people in America have been subject to many things. Some of the most prominent, in my thinking, are that Mexicans are criminals, they’re dark skinned, they’re all ghetto, etc. The list goes on and on. For this series I wanted to capture the image of some of those stereotypes as well as some that showcase the differences that, in reality, a lot of us have. Some of us have straight hair, others curly. Some have blonde hair and green eyes, and other of us do have dark brown hair with matching eyes. There is no single image that shows “what Mexicans look like” or “how they are”. There is so much more to all of us, and that’s what I’m here to show.

Models: Mario Quiñonez, Ivan Quiñonez

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olivia and

emma NADIA STUPSKI Things have not gotten much better even after the Guerilla Girls era with a recent data survey from the Public Library of Science found that of the permanent collections of 18 prominent art museums in the U.S. out of over 10,000 artists, 87% are male. With the glaring under representation of women in the visual art world, in museums especially, I decided to talk with two very talented female visual artists. Olivia and Emma were very sweet in allowing me to photograph them with their newest sculpture piece.

The following is some excerpts from my interview with them.

Models: Emma Thomas and Olivia Rankin 84

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What are your inspirations?

Olivia: Our inspiration was to use already used and unused art supplies in the back room and just like random stuff.

Emma: We had been working in the backroom and it was super disorganized and so there were all these things that we would pick up and say like “this is really weird?�

Olivia: and in the va room in general there is alot of junk.

Emma: The other day I found a box with colored glass bottles with mystery powder in them. Sketchy as heck!

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What do you hope to accomplish with this piece?

Olivia: We wanted to show that you can make art out of anything and that anything can be inspiration.

Emma: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. (showing) People’s perception of what they think is enjoyable regardless of its a disorganized mess or like a cloud!

What drives you to create art?

Olivia: (softly) Art is so cool!

Emma: haha yeah Olivia: Sometimes I just get bored and think “I could be making something.”

Emma: Or sometimes i see someone else making art and I think Oh thats so awesome! I can do that! And that sets me in this mood of “I want to do something regardless of whether or not it looks good.”

Its this moment of motivation and the want to create to something.

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Would you want to have a solo art show in the future? Would you want your work to be in a museum?

Emma: Yes it would be so fun!

Olivia: It would be scary putting all your art out there for everyone to see. I think it’s fun to share art and learn from other peoples art so yeah.

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