SHANNON FITZGERALD: A LITTLE BIT WEIRD

How do you make a photograph no one has seen before?

BY JOSHUA CAMERON

SHANNON FITZGERALD works in photography to express her interests in visual storytelling and obscuring reality. Her images trick the eye in subtle ways and play with perception with a touch of the surreal. This vision is what led her to win the PhotoED Magazine/ InFocus Photo exhibition’s Emerging Artist Award in 2019.

Shannon reflects on her years as a synchronized swimmer.

Shannon Fitzgerald became interested in photography in the tenth grade when she was inspired by a pinhole camera project in her school’s scarcely used darkroom. A former competitive swimmer from Kitchener, Ontario, Shannon recently graduated from Sheridan College’s photography program.

“For my final Sheridan photography project, a lot of the photos didn’t have a complete plan,” she says. “I wanted the photos to be a little bit weird and sort of spooky. I’m a big fan of Harry Potter and other fantasy works, so I started with some simple portraits and worked in some surrealism in post.

This image is from Little Sax, the Ghost, a series of still life images based on the story of the unfortunate childhood and near death experiences of Adolphe Sax—the man who invented the saxophone.

“I aim to make photographs I haven’t seen before,” she shares. “So I tried to photograph things that looked normal, yet abnormal at the same time.” Inspired by the work of Brooke Shaden, René Magritte, and the reality-dodging sequences of Duane Michals, Shannon wanted to make viewers slightly uncomfortable with her thesis project.

This image is from Little Sax, the Ghost, a series of still life images based on the story of the unfortunate childhood and near death experiences of Adolphe Sax—the man who invented the saxophone.

This image is from Little Sax, the Ghost, a series of still life images based on the story of the unfortunate childhood and near death experiences of Adolphe Sax—the man who invented the saxophone.

Shannon keeps an extensive visual diary of things she likes, inspiration from other work, ideas, and anything else she comes across, which usually contains the basis of her experiments. “Sometimes ideas are way harder to put into practice, so I have to experiment as I go. I wanted to create a photograph like M.C. Escher’s staircases but with books, but it was nearly impossible, so I had to really simplify my idea.

“I try to plan out an idea as much as I can, especially if I’m hoping to do a lot of Photoshop work afterwards, so I try to get every shot I might need. Then I explore and experiment until I’m somewhat satisfied with what I have. Sometimes I miss a few shots and have to go back,” she laughs. “But when I’m on a deadline, I just have to make do with what I’ve got.”

An image from an exploration of the shapes and expressions of arms and hands.

Shannon’s advice to young photographers is simple: “There’s always just one more thing, one more edit, one more shot. Sometimes it’s okay to step away and let something be finished. I’m the kind of person that’ll spend all my time editing one photo, so I know the feeling well.”