NYU Photography & Imaging - Senior Catalog 2022 by NYU Photography & Imaging

B FA CATA L O G

Tisch School of the Arts

The Department of Photography and Imaging

2022 N E W YO R K U N I V E R S I T Y

B FA CATA L O G

Tisch School of the Arts

The Department of Photography and Imaging

2022 N E W YO R K U N I V E R S I T Y

The Department of Photography and Imaging (DPI) in Tisch School of the Arts at New York University is a four-year B.F.A. program situated in New York City. Centered on the making and understanding of images, DPI offers students both the intensive focus of an arts curriculum while demanding a broad grounding in the liberal arts. Our department embraces multiple perspectives and approaches which encourages critical engagement both in and outside of the classroom. Our majors explore photo-based imagery as personal and cultural expression while working in virtually all modes of analog and digital photo-based image making, multimedia, new media, immersive, and post-photographic 3D simulation technologies.

Instagram: @tischphoto Twitter: @tischphoto www.vimeo.com/tischphoto www.facebook.com/tischphoto www.tisch.nyu.edu/photo

OW EN GAVIS EMILY CO N T R ER AS GÓ MEZ EMMA K AUF MAN F IO N A B ESW ICK IS AB ELLE B EAUCH AMP J IAQ I LIU S O P H IE Y EW ELL K ALA H ER H AMB ER Mc KEN Z IE N ATAS H A F EN GA Z AY IR A R AY AB B IGAIL H O N G Y V ET T E F U AUS T IN F EN N DAN IELA B O LO GN A CH R IS SY N ELS O N DAWS O N B ATCH ELD ER IN ES S B U MO MO TAK AH AS H I N ATAS H A S EGEB R E TAT IAN A MAX W ELL ALEX AN D ER MO N TGO MERY J EAN Z AMO R A S O P H IA CH UN G CAMILLA S Z AB O F IN N EGAN S CH N EID ER FALLO N Mc D O N ALD LAY TO N DAV IS T ED TAEKEUN KIM DAN IEL KY UN GJ UN KIM D EVAN MAR Z ER IC H AR T J R . J ULIAN A S P IT Z MO LAMIK AN R A LY LA D OW H IE GEN ES IS K AI R H IAN Y D D H Y LTO N TALIA RO S E B AR TO N W YAT T H UMP H R EYS Y I PAN J UDY Z H AN G J EF F T H O MAS

6 10 14 18 22 26 30 34 38 42 46 50 54 58 62 66 70 74 78 82 86 90 94 98 102 106 110 114 118 1 22 1 26 130 1 34 1 38 142 1 46 1 50 1 54 1 58 162 166 1 70

OW E N G AV I S

Industrial Revolutions: Algorithmic Outputs: 1-5 Owen Gavis in Collaboration with Jamie Gavis

I became fascinated with the ideas that I am again facing an industrial revolution, brought to me through the smartphone screen. Much like the First and Second that came before it, the very reality of daily life has been and will be changed by it. I realize I find it difficult to remember a year or two ago, let alone five, after constantly interfacing with technology, I am faced with a near complete loss of memory. It has fragmented the way I record and recall information, memories fall into the aesthetics of digital forgetfulness; fragments of small-sized files, not containing enough information to discern a whole or accurate conjuring of the past in my mind. Using a computer program developed in collaboration with data scientist Jamie Gavis, images from The Second Industrial Revolution (1870-1914) (sourced from The New York Public Library Digital Collection) are analyzed and reconstructed using pieces of other images depicting similar or related events. The program attempts to align these fragments based on correlation of color and value but is unable to see the work in its entirety, instead relegated to looking at it in pieces. The images become fragmented, identifying with digital visual language, they’re original archival purpose fades into obscurity.

Recontexualize

As birthdays have come and gone, I had become increasingly aware of how unreliable my memory was becoming. Both family and friends would try to bring up things that we had done together and almost every time it was very difficult or next to impossible to remember exactly what they were referring to. Family albums and my phone’s camera roll and social media posts quickly became substitutes for my memories. They were able to help me remember those times spent with loved ones when my own memory would fail me.

My mom gave birth to me on June 27th, 2000 at 5:15am in Bellevue Hospital. She said the labor was quick and I came out so easily. She said that I was pretty fuzzy and had a lot of hair for a newborn. My dad was the one to cut my umbilical cord. He also talked about how emotional that day was for him. Although, my dad was present for my older brother’s birth. He wasn’t able to raise or have much of a presence in his life. I think that this is really what drove him to push for us to be an active family. I wonder what would have happened if Edwin and I grew up together? I always yearned for a closer bond with my brother.

E M ILY C ON T RERAS G Ó M EZ

With the focus on family photos, my parents help me construct the context through their recollection of what happened in each image. An imperfect substitute to what actually occurred that day, as I may never truly be able to recall what happened from my own perspective. Instead I must rely on the images taken by my parents and their accounts of that instance. It’s impossible to capture every moment of one’s life and place it in an album. To appreciate my family album is to also wonder exactly how much is unrecoverable.

My brother, Edwin, didn’t visit much. But these are some of the few images we have together. We never grew up together due to him being from my dad’s previous marriage. My brother described how due to interpersonal conflicts, he would avoid spending time with me when we were younger. With little interaction between us, I wonder how his childhood photos differ from my own.

@antiemi

Visiting the East River quickly became a family activity that we would do even into my adolescence. My mom said that when my dad would get home from work, we would walk over to the East River. This particular time we ended up going rather late and staying until dusk. We don’t do this anymore now that both my sister and I are older. Though, I wonder what my parents’ did with their parents for family time.

Dressing Up The closet or dressing room is a means to see ourselves, our counterparts, and our hidden selves. There is a certain truth and purity to the dressing area and all that it beholds. The closet, with its garments and accessories that could tell stories and document meaningful moments in one’s life. The dressing area, where one’s attire may have changed their life. These hidden gems with their secrets and truths are between them and the eye that beholds them, each time telling a different story. Pictured here is my dressing room series, all photographs were displayed on a clothing rack.

E M M A K AU F MA N

Red Corner

Red Corner is a series of photographs documenting female boxers, both amateur and professional, as they fight for their place in the sport. Even in world championship level boxing, women are forced to work extra jobs in order to support their boxing careers. All the while, their male counterparts make millions fighting for the same belts. This project aims to shed light on the obstacles women must overcome to participate in a sport they love. To the outsider, boxing is a violent sport; it is gruesome and outdated, many don’t understand why the sport is even allowed to continue. However, to the boxer, it is an art form, a practice of precise movements and rhythms, one that requires an intense amount of focus and intelligence. These photographs take an indepth look at the women who choose to fight despite everything working against them. *In boxing, the red corner is the corner out of which the champion fights, while the underdog fights out of the blue corner. The blue corner enters the ring first and is forced to watch the champion’s entrance to the ring.

FION A B E SW I C K

Over quarantine, I found myself bored with my monotonous environment. Desperate to distract myself, I turned to a new medium and was pleasantly surprised with 3D imaging. I found myself falling in love with the worlds I could create—they were bright and vibrant, soaked in a saturation I hadn’t felt since the world shut down. It was refreshing to inhabit an infinite fantasy space in contrast to my tiny apartment.

Through this work, I’ve found I can create worlds where I’m not afraid to exist. There are no boundaries or barriers. This work initially stemmed from quarantine loneliness; however, it’s translated into my everyday life and provides a place where I can be whatever I want without worrying about any confines. While we are often limited by the physics of reality, within digital worlds lie this unique freedom. They can be playful, profound, or absurd––but most importantly, they are mine.

Mesh 22

IS A B E L L E BEAU C H A M P

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Abraham Maslow proposed a theory of the hierarchy of needs in his 1943 paper “A Theory of Human Motivation” in Psychological Review. He uses the terms “physiological,” “safety,” “belonging and love,” “esteem,” and “self-actualization” to describe the pattern through which human motivations generally range from low to high. I believe it is a good time to analyze this theory through social responses during the global pandemic of COVID-19. Normally, for a developed country like the United States, it is rare to see a large number of people to have desperate “physiological” and “safety” needs. However, during this pandemic, as people are worrying about whether or not they can stay safe and healthy, they are also in fear of losing access to basic physiological supplies, since this public health crisis has influenced the overall social structure and economy tremendously. I visited Costco and Walmart—two of America’s biggest supply stores. I shot these images when I had to go grocery shopping, which were the only times I had contact with the outside world during this pandemic. I contrasted parallel images of empty racks of highly demanded basic human need supplies during this pandemic with images of full racks of normally favored products that supply higher needs during regular time. These images are presented in diptychs. Images with similar compositions are paired together to create visual contrast.

JI AQI L I U

KIN

CARA(22) & OSCAR(21) I don’t argue much with our smallest brother, Aaron, but I do with Oscar. He’s a little more rude. I don’t think he means to be, he’s just in pain sometimes. 30

SOPHIE(ME)(21), NINA(19), & GIGI(15)

Cara usually knows what she wants, which is one of her strengths in my opinion. It’s really nice having someone older that I can look to for guidance. SOPHIE YEW EL L

I am drawn to sibling bonds because of their innate intimacy. Regardless of closeness, people tend to care for their brother(s) or sister(s) with a distinct fondness, different from that of a friend or even a parent. I think there is a connection between sibling bonds and the natural association of unconditional love between family. One’s brother or sister is the first person they learn to hate and the first person they learn to love. It is through navigating sibling relationships that someone learns how to love, how to hate, how to love despite hate, and why love is stronger than hate, above all else. These are lessons that, as a sister, I could not imagine learning without my siblings.

DANIEL(22) & LARA(22) I feel like my existence is intrinsically linked with Lara. Before college, the longest we had been apart was about a week. 32

The furthest I’ve ever lived from Dani was when he lived in Manhattan and I lived in Brooklyn.

Brothers and sisters often take after each other visually, unsurprisingly so seeing the apparent blood connection. Although, much of it transpires also as a byproduct of shared experience. Overtime, siblings develop like traits or mannerisms by virtue of growing up alongside one another, which plays into their resemblance. With these images, I hope to explore siblinghood beyond the guise of a mere childhood playmate.

SHERESE(42) & CHRISSY(21)33

In 2021, attacks against Asians rose by nearly 169 percent. New York City had the sharpest increase, with a 223 percent increase, according to California State University. As the frequency and deadliness of the attacks escalated through the year, the community came together to form organizations that properly expressed our fear, but also rage. From resistance to racist immigration laws and fighting against Japanese American incarceration to protesting the lack of Asian representation in the 1991 Whitney Biennial, the community has long advocated for rights they believed in – and this year was no different. Like those who came before us, the Asian community spoke up and spoke out in 2021. By documenting their fight for social justice, the project archives personal anecdotes and adds critical figures to the historical canon. Occupying diverging realms of advocacy – from academia and arts to non-profits and politics – each activist provides a glimpse into their world and the work they do within it. Among the multitude of experiences, they share where and how they grew up, the people and events that influenced them and most importantly, the initiatives they lead today. Together, their experiences, discoveries and reflections create a rich database for future generations to draw from. To learn more about the project, check out @aapiactivistarchive on Instagram

On the Front Lines: Portraits of Asian American Activists 34

K A L A HE R H

The Philosophy of Water In the Ancient Chinese philosophy of Taoism, a sage named Lao Tzu wrote the Tao Te Ching (The Book of the Way). Taoism has no supreme deity; it is a vision of universal order, a cosmic energy composed of forces known as Yin and Yang. In the Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu uses water as a metaphor to invoke a structure for people to understand the concept of Taoism. Water is adaptable and it can inspire us to work in harmony with our surroundings rather than against them. We can live a more fulfilling life by embodying the characteristics of water and accepting the inevitability of change. In this series, light shines through water in various glass objects representing water’s adaptable and effortless flow. As I moved and tilted the glass objects to capture these images, I felt as though I was painting with water and light. Throughout my process, I noticed the movement of the reflections constantly changing from calm blurred patterns to chaotic or complex rippling caustics, symbolizing the duality of life.

“The supreme goodness is like water. It benefits all things without contention. In dwelling, it stays grounded. In being, it flows to depths. In expression, it is honest. In confrontation, it stays gentle. In governance, it does not control. In action, it aligns to timing. It is content with its nature, and therefore cannot be faulted.” The Tao Te Ching - Verse 8

A M B E R M cK EN Z I E

STILETTOS Half a century ago, women started to shift gender norms in fashion by wearing pants. They did this in order to function more freely, and as a movement of empowerment to be seen as more equal to their male counterparts. Now, we see more and more that men are starting to break standard gender roles and wear more feminine clothing. Both are amazing breakthroughs in dismantling the gender constraints so deeply ingrained in society but there are still general conflicts of knowledge in what both femininity and masculinity hold. One of these misconceptions is that neither are tied to their corresponding gender. Oftentimes, when femininity is depicted, for all genders, it is depicted as soft and weak whereas masculinity is depicted as bold and strong. Being as most of the times femininity is associated with the corresponding genders, the impacts of this type of representation are concerning. Not only can this type of representation encourage discrimination against those who exude femininity but it is also inaccurate. In reality, the essence of femininity is strong and powerful just not as explicitly transparent in the physical sense as masculinity but most definitely in ways unrecognizable to the naked human eye. This paradigm in how we create images needs to change. Femininity should not be considered, whether consciously or subconsciously, inferior to masculinity. It should not be that in order to create images full of power and strength it is necessary to include masculine elements. With my work, I combat this by creating images that explore the beauties of femininity while still exuding power. I also explore beauty standards, and how they seek to control the essence of femininity and the power beauty has to be truly anything. 42

N ATAS HA F EN G A

‫زﻣﯿﻦ‬ Zameen

Zameen features the capsule collection of female body sculptures made in collaboration between Pakistani fashion designer Misha Japanwala and Indian textile designer Aradhita Parasrampuria. “Zameen” means “land” or “earth” in Urdu, which is the very root of this body of work. Through the adornment of intricate body casts made with sustainable biomaterials —specifically mycelium, the vegetative part of fungus— the female body becomes one with Mother Nature, photographed with an unmistakable strength as she rests on a podium of soil. This capsule, from ideation to creation, is made and embodied entirely by South Asian women. With intention and care, our bodies are finally pictured at rest. No longer are there the suppressive, outdated, and toxic restrictions placed on the brown body; it simply exists as it is. 46

Z AY I R A R AY

하나님의 모든 자녀들 All of God’s Children

A B B IG A IL H O N G

I never felt His presence in my life Not even in a dream Mom told me I will find Him soon Dad said to pray harder But that was in highschool And the person I was then Is not the same person now I don’t think I believe anymore... Despite that, Am I really God’s child?

Pastors’ kids have become an example of the church, a representative of being a ‘good Christian.’ These pressures from the church have either negatively or positively impacted these individuals’ relationships with culture, identity, religion, community, and more. These experiences have shaped and formed these individuals’ morals, ideals, and opinions on the world and its society. All of God’s Children is a photo series that documents the Korean American Christian community, concentrating on how the community has impacted the lives of pastors’ children. The project explores the themes of identity, culture, religion, and other intimate topics through the depiction and the relationships between the portraits and their environment. This series is a reflection on the intimacy of religion and how communities form 52

through these ties.

Fr e e Fall

The overloaded information we receive in the digital space, whether voluntarily or passively, now plays a significant role in shaping our perspectives. The virtual world is becoming an extension of physical reality. I am fascinated by the concept of “Free Fall” theorized by German filmmaker Hito Steyerl, which describes the current landscape in a condition of free-falling into the abyss instead of holding to the orthodox linear system. With the new media and visualities “floating” in the hyperreality with us, I intend to explore the new ways for the -presentation of information and consequently the representation. This is especially the case after the COVID-19 breakout in spring 2020. Therefore, I feel the urge to assess this contemporary condition using new media technologies. In this 3D animated sequence, an animated avatar will take an adventure through the hyperreal spaces. The project takes the COVID-19 breakout as a fulcrum to invest in the pandemic experience and related issues raised on the internet. At the end of this “adventure,” the avatar stands in the middle of an empty room. The ending questions the audience, “how can anyone contribute to the creation of this digital space relating to the representation of these themes?” Ideally, this procedure will take place in the form of asking the audience to print out a personal picture and put it up in a photo booth next to the video screening. I encourage everyone who sees this piece to also take part in exploring the new representational freedom.

Y V E T T E FU

S E L E C T E D

W O R K S

I’m an image-based conceptual artist who creates work that sits at the intersection of art, philosophy, technology, and sociology to help myself and others better understand how reality is constructed.

HYPERREALITY (2021)

AU S TIN FE N N

METAMODERNISM (2021)

BREAKFAST FOR DINNER (2020)

62 DA N I E L A BO LO G N A 63

MEMORY TAXIDERMY is an exploration of the frantic anxiety and chronic nostalgia that stems from the ephemeral and unreliable nature of memories.

W h a t H a p p e n e d T h i s Ti m e ? O

What Happened This Time? bares my most vulnerable moments confrontationally in an act of overwhelming frustration. By reenacting an internal crisis through bodily movement and posture, this series provides an insight into my feelings of anxiety, anger, emptiness, and fear, which are often channeled towards those who have wronged me. e This is an exploration of my reactiveness to traumatic events, how I can dramatize as well as downplay and self-isolate. s This is my anxiety attack exhibited for all to see. e This is my temper tantrum. e

CH R I S SY N EL S O N

Regard it like a dove / found whistling balanced bravely on that

alone / at the prickling of your ears / branch / precarious

and carry it bundled, / like a column of twigs / bound tightly with twine, / but coarse and grating, / that persistent weight / too light to notice

A Great Blimp Bound and Bouyant Emerges from the Shadows

One Path Spanning Wide as Space

Regard It

Like A Dove

DAWS ON B ATC H EL D ER

and when you lay it down / find those lashes / drawn ’cross your shoulders like tilled earth / healing and hurting / in that uneven cycle askew.

But there are birds which sit idle by / everyday / waiting to be heard / waiting to sing you their song.

An Aged Babe Sees the Beaming Sun Above

Three Trees Standing Tall as Time

Regard It Like A Dove is a medium-format photography, digital

Central Park, which holds innumerable memories for the millions

the past, present and future with the pictorial x, y and z axes

circumstances. The three mediums compliment and contrast each

sculpture and written word hybrid constructed like a quilt,

of visitors that have traipsed its grounds. The photographs

of the scene, interjecting figures and stories that never existed.

other, creating a dialogue between historical and contemporary

stitching together and layering time, memory, and medium.

come without context or action, and so, act like stages upon

Contrasting these more conceptual elements, a piece of writing

practices. Furthermore, they build upon one another, weaving

The series presents medium-format photographs made on

which the digital sculptures and written words can “perform,”

describes the emotional experience of contending with memories

a warbling and wiley tale that seems to constantly add layers on

my grandfather’s Rolleiflex, and combines them with digital

interacting with the environment around them, an environment

and narratives, ruminating on the habit of construction and

top of itself, interpreting and reinterpreting, disrupting while

sculptures. The photographs depict natural scenes spliced out of

they have never and will never exist in. The pieces fuse together

obsession, and the importance of accepting internal and external

simultaneously synthesizing narratives that never occurred.

AUSPICIOUS PROUD Auspicious, Proud is a documentary series of selfexporation that I started creating at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. As countries all around the world entered a lockdown with the hopes of slowing the spread of the Coronavirus, resources have become scarce, and with all but essential services closed and mandated selfisolation orders in place, life has been limited to the walls of our own homes. While this thought was a daunting one at first, I quickly realized that art, culture, and traditions were being created and practices for hundreds of years prior to the introduction of what we believe are essentials today. Growing up in the United States as a KoreanAmerican has often left me associating more to Western culture, and sometimes even embarrassed about my Korean roots and ignorant of my South Korean heritage and the its history.

IN E S S B U

夫瑞衒

I spent the majority of the pandemic living alone in my childhood home in Honolulu, Hawaii — away from all my friends and family in South Korea. During this time, I found myself frequently yearning for a comfort that I’ve only ever found in Korea, whether that be through a traditional dish, a classic song, or a childhood pastime. Not being able to easily access what I spent my entire life believing was the given, led me to appreciate my multicultural upbringing for the first time, and develop an interest in South Korean history. With the hopes to reclaim my heritage, pay respect to my culture, and make up for the times I spent ashamed of my roots, this project, Auspicious, Proud, was born.

As Asian Americans are targeted for violence during the pandemic in the United States, the sentiment that we are viewed as the “Other” is overwhelmingly prevalent; cementing the notion that our Asian bodies do not belong in this country. As part of the Asian diaspora, Asian Americans exist between the in-betweens of our dual identities, connected to two different lands. Where do we truly belong? Where do we call home? Anchored by my upbringing by my Japanese immigrant parents and as a response to the anti-Asian hate crimes in the U.S., Where We Call Home is a photographic series documenting Asian Americans in their homes, depicting the ways one keeps ties to their cultural background and forms their own cultural identity. These portraits centered around “home” reveal the connection between the spaces we reside in, to the idea of belongingness within a homeland. Portraits of these individuals were taken in the intimacy of their homes, as the sitter and I collaborated in depicting the significance of the environment and how they honor their Asian heritage. The cultural connections depicted in the photographs through food, decor, rituals, and language demonstrate the ways we as Asian Americans carve out our own space unique to our transnational identity within a country that treats us as perpetual foreigners. Most importantly, the photos represent the resiliency and beauty of the Asian American community despite the hardships we have faced thus far.

M OM O TA K A H AS H I

Where We Call Home

Michelle

Jasmine and Sara

Laurel

Anissa

There is Something to Be Said About The Night There I was, laying on the floor of my bedroom, looking up at my ceiling as the light retreated from the pools it had made on my carpet back out into the sky. Night was coming, and the day had passed by like it had yesterday and the day before and the week before that—slowly, and without consequence. I had spent most of my time in quarantine just like that—letting the days pass over me like a blanket being pulled over and off of me, again and again. I felt like I was stuck in between the four walls of my bedroom, which became a liminal space void of the things I once took comfort in. One night, I went out with my camera and started photographing houses in hopes that I’d make a photograph that was worthy of being compared to Todd Hido—and that it would give me something to do. So there it began—the start of my new quarantine routine. Every night, almost without fail, I went out and photographed the houses and structures in my family’s neighborhood, walking in the same cyclical patterns. Somehow I found something new to photograph every night. After I walked for a couple of hours, I’d sit in the garage, door open, cicadas buzzing—and develop the film so that I could scan it in the morning and witness what my camera was seeing that I was not. I’ve always disliked walking—I’ll drive or take the subway to avoid having to, but somehow one of the things I disliked the most became second nature when I was also doing something I loved. With every roll I learned something new, realized a new way to photograph the same scene, and made so many mistakes it’s hard to count. I was hooked on the feeling of learning something new. As the world opened up and I moved back to New York, I still found myself being called back to the same process—the same desire to walk around with my camera, looking for places and things in the night that called to me. The process became therapeutic, and as my routine changed as I moved from place to place, it took on new forms every time I went out to shoot. Sometimes I’d find them while I was with friends on the way to the store for a midnight snack, and sometimes I went out with no plan in mind, but no matter how or where these images came to me, one thing remained—the incomparable feeling of excitement when I saw a new landscape or scene. Once I started walking, I didn’t stop. These photos are part of one long continuous walk I’ve been on for years. To date, this project is an accumulation of these places that I’ve found over the past year and a half. I don’t know why these images are so meaningful to me and why they’ve been calling to me yet, but a friend once told me that meaning comes from doing what feels right, and when I was at the lowest point in my life, this is what felt right, and still does.

N ATAS HA S EG EBRE

Portrait f o

Death Portrait of Death highlights the unresolvable tension between life and death. The subjects, once living animals, are pictured inside an overwhelmingly desolate void, suspended between the act of life and oblivion of death. They are intentionally propped and posed so as to emphasize the mimetic nature of preservation. In the images, death presents itself as life but falls short, breeding a cold absence. The compositions’ simultaneous morbidity and compositional gracefulness serve to further complicate the aforementioned tension between life and death, beauty and carnage, primitiveness and tameness.

TATIA N A M A X W EL L

American Cuisine for the New Home Cook Across all the world’s cultures, cuisines, recipes, and ingredients are often protected and celebrated as a deeply ingrained portion of said culture. Vill ages mere miles apart will argue over the correct methods and ingredients for preparing a specific dish. Chicago and New York find themselves locked in an endless battle over the definition and minimum requirements for a pizza, and Kentucky Fried Chicken has built an empire revolving around a mysterious spice blend that few are privy to the recipe. In lieu of the elitism that has risen over centuries surrounding cooking, many people have lost sight of the inherent humor that exists within the culinary world. Ingredients may smell before proper preparation, meat burns, and a seemingly impossible number of our dishes present themselves quite grotesquely, despite tasting of heaven itself. In my satirical cookbook,

American Cuisine for the New Home Cook , I have set out to more closely examine the rel ationship between comedy and cuisine. Looking through a humor-oriented lens, I present some of America’s most familiar and cl assic dishes from the point of view of a disgruntled, has-been chef who has no filter when it comes to highlighting the oddities within American Cuisine.

A L E XA N D ER M O N TG O M ERY

The Space Inbetween

The Space Inbetween is a photographic exploration of the feeling of precariousness the world faced during the summer of 2020, the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic. Before vaccines, and during the height of the stay-at-home orders, there was a collective sense of uncertainty while everyone sat at home and waited. The world was waiting for life to go back to how we knew it, despite there being no assurance that it would.

JE A N Z A MO RA

Nearly two years later, imagery of the pandemic has proliferated. Images of people in masks or receiving vaccines will always be a marker for this time period; however, none of those images seem to truly capture the emotional distress and confusion of the moment.

Looking back on the images from The Space Inbetween now, from a world that is still not back to normal but has finally begun to recover, I feel like they grasp at some of the feelings of that time. These were the images I made out of necessity, to cope with my own personal battle with the unknown, and because of that I think they get at a larger truth of the moment. These images are an expression of my depression, anxiety, and even hope from the summer of 2020, while the world held its breath.

get away 98

get away was exhibited at the Miel gallery cafe in Seoul, South Korea in the summer of 2021. Capturing the idyllic beauty of Cancun and New York in the months before the peak of COVID-19 pandemic, the series delivers an artistic escape through film photographs.

SOPH I A C H U N G

10010 0 101

soapychung

정시예

@soapychung

soapychung@gmail.com

+1.929582.9035 +82.10.7712.8056

siyeh chung sophia

what we do to the earth we do to our bodies

What is at stake when we perceive our bodies as being distinctly separate from the natural world? What must we remember about connection, embodiment, and physicality as we move through a world that profits off the exploitation of our bodies and the earth? When we silence the wisdom of our bodies and the natural world we sacrifice the tools most fundamental to our awakening as human beings– the body and its connection to the land. We extract and exploit, only to find that out of this disconnection arises immense bodily and environmental illness. This series of portraits recontextualizes the body by situating the nude form in natural environments, moving away from a cultural understanding of nudity that sexualizes and objectifies the body towards an intuitive understanding of the body and its inextricable connection to the land. As the nude form is recontextualized within a natural landscape, one is encouraged to rejoice in their most embodied form, to interact with the living and breathing organisms all around them. In doing so one reunites with the womb– the landscape we have been born into yet simultaneously cast from. Collaboration with subjects of all ages, body types and backgrounds was integral to the creation of this work, allowing for an exploration of the body and identity. By placing a range of subjects in natural settings I consider the ways in which all bodies are interwoven with the land, illuminating each individual’s capacity to realize their experience of being one of, and with, the natural world.

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CA M I L L A SZ A BO

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1 05

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FI N N EGA N S C H N EI D ER

1 07

MAKING A PHOTOGRAPH (PT. 1) [Making a Photograph (Pt.1) works to broaden collective understanding at the intersection of science and art as well as what it means to ‘make’, ‘take’, and ‘capture’ a photograph.]

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FA L LON Mc D O N A L D

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I LOVE YOU, ANNI JOSEF

AND I have been trying to articulate something incommunicable. Thankfully for me, The message is in the medium. This is an in-progress excerpt of my project exploring the limits of the photographic self-portrait Creating patterns out of Polaroids to then printing on fabric. Quilting the patterned fabrics to create a tapestry And then photographing myself with it Building a cage hoop skirt. Hanging the Polaroids from the structure of the cage And then photographing myself wearing it Forming a silicone mold of my torso. Casting both wax and plaster busts from the mold And then photographing myself with it This ongoing self-portrait strives to show my change over time as I struggle to survey my own image I am sculpting a self out of these materials... it is truly a shame they have been reduced to merely catalogue pages Unfortunately for you, dear reader, the message is in the medium. So it seems you are doomed to experience this project at a material loss

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Designing Negatives From the beginning my goal was to put my process on full display. I photograph architectural sites and spaces I come across, and then distort the original structures to fit my own vision by using those photographs to create drawings, and then using those drawings to make paintings. Months pass between taking the original photograph on my phone and making a painting. Returning to these photographs months later serves to refresh my memory of the original location and the sensory associations that shape the memory. These memories

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L AY TON DAV I S

then define what colors and paints I use, and sometimes the amount of control I allow the paint to have itself. These images are the most concise description of my process from beginning to end. The architecture is stripped of its context, its necessity, and rendered useless, yet still shown objectively, its original form, untouched but in conversation with a new medium.

all images works in progress

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rendering_ error Moving to the United States from South Korea alone at a young age, my subconsciousness has adapted a system to alleviate my two colliding identities, an ongoing battle between my past and present. At first, I had desperately tried to hold on, but along the way, I made the decision to let go and ignore my roots, purposefully eviscerating what has felt unreachable to my present. Soon I realized that such selfevisceration is my attempt at mourning the fleeting remnants of my upbringing in Korea. However, mourning is an unsuccessful one in nature. The failed renditions of my lost memories stare me down, suspended in the air, asking me to tear them apart. Ironically, this destruction process only resurfaces other mutated fragments from the past, spiraling into a never-ending cycle of replications and destructions. To forget, I have to remember and to remember, I must embrace its flawed nature. rendering_error aims to visualize this void between me and my memories — the error in my mourning — that only expands In rendering_error, I took on 3D generation and the digital space to simulate and make sense of my mourning process. I generated 3D models of figures who primarily dwell in my memories as if I am drawing sketches in my head. Unfortunately, like my defective process of mourning, the technological process bears its glitches and limitations, rendering disjointed replications. So I proceed to destroy, blur and abstract the models until they are no longer recognizable

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T E D TA E K E U N K I M

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SELECTED WORKS (2016-2021) The series represents my varied photographic interests. During my time in the Department of Photography and Imaging, I explored portraiture, still life, minimalism, documentary, and landscapes. My senior thesis explores the native advantages of the photographic medium to create a visual ideological discourse. I’d like to thank the Tisch Department of Photography and Imagining—its staff and its students—for being a source of endless artistic inspiration and technical knowledge. Check out my website to see the complete set of works and more: danielkim310.com

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DA N I E L K YUN G J U N K I M

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CHROMA-HOP 126

Hip-Hop creates a mystical aura around its creators

COVID-19 pandemic, where Hip-Hop, amongst the

that has fabricated a globalized genre of music that

world’s industry, underwent reinvention, leading

roots back to its home of New York City. While the

artists in New York to again break into the spotlight

music itself has evolved, its core omnipresent ef-

through their ingenuity and authenticity to the craft.

fect in the city has remained prevalent throughout

They serve as documentation to the frankly magical

its multiplicities of representations. Vibrancy of the

effect these artists have on their listeners world-

artistry of both the creator and product is visual-

wide, which, at a transformative point of New York

ly represented in their presence and process of

City’s history will have a lasting effect for years to

creation. These images all were made during the

come. @guyonmarz guyonmarz.com.

D E VA N M ARZ

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Through photographic expression, I have begun to find my own tone of voice, my own stride, my own power. This collection is

When I Think

an expression of my journey. Through the

Everyday of my life I’ve been called my father.

tures both internal conflict and external em-

And while I’ve watched my face mature into a

brace surrounding shifting notions of Black

replica of his, watched my beard fill in the same

masculinity. From queerness, dress, to her-

realm of black and white photography this photo series, When I Think About Power cap-

istics I could never seem to match. The stride in

About Power

his walk, the tone of his voice, but most impor-

itage, this collection of stylized portraiture

tantly, the pride in himself. The type of pride that

questions the search of one’s own power and

exudes a certain confidence, a certain power.

breeds life into a new notion of man. This

Growing up as a queer Black man in Southern

series is so important because it represents

America, power hid from me. Almost like a game

a reclaiming of power. This power speaks

of hide and seek. I searched and I searched. Fol-

to all the queer men who have shared, and

lowed the tracks of others. Tracks that led me

even are currently experiencing, this same

to pews of judgment, in between sheets of tem-

conflict, internally with themselves and ex-

porary satisfaction, and ultimately to a place of

ternally with the world around them.

way his sits, and grew to a height tall enough to see him eye to eye, there are certain character-

always questioning who looked back at me in mirrors. It wasn’t until this search led me to photography that I began to understand this person.

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E R IC HA R T J R.

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vulnerable When or how did you know you were in love? What intrigues you about your partner? What is it about your partner that makes you smile? When was your heart broken last? How are you really? What about you feels hardest to love? What made you fall in love with your person? Has social media influenced your authenticity in your emotional connections?

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JU L IA N A SP I T Z

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TRADITION Aja e e j, ogungun ya gbe ko ghon o ‘on.

In 2020, I spent my first birthday back home in Lagos in 10 years. I use the term home lightly: all that time I spent abroad made me redefine the meaning of home. Home became a place that was constantly moving. I often answered the question of where home was with wherever my parents were. But as I grew up away from them, the meaning of home changed again. So being back in Lagos I had to adapt to my new home. I started to create work that focused on my heritage, using this work to dive into my ties to my Nigerian home. These images are the result of some of the research and pulling visuals and symbols for the work and concepts I uncovered. Some of the themes and ideas I kept coming back to were fashion and rituals. These images all contain Ankara fabric which is one of the most universally recognized African textiles. These were originally Dutch fabric meant for Indonesia but grew in popularity when it reached West Africa. The fabric is now used by many people to show their connection to Africa.

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M O L A M I K A N RA

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a stretch of time This series of photographs are a look into the life of my family and close circle of friends throughout the summer, documenting daily life while in the middle of a pandemic. Even with COVID-19, my family’s overall dynamic has not really changed. Every day my mother exercises religiously; walking, running, weight lifting, and so on. My father starts his day by looking around our property and deciding what needs to be done; yard work, boat work, motorcycle restoration, or helping my sister with her van. My sister has slightly different habits; waking up past noon, and then walking the dogs with my mother where she usually decides what she’s going to do with the remainder of her day. We each do different things during the day but at some point each of our schedules align with one another’s. These photos reflect brief moments of my limited contact with my close friends, and my daily existence with my sister, Emma, my mother and my father. The photos highlight the monotony and repetition brought about by this quarantine. Our unchanging environment, daily routines, and (sometimes) clothing blend each day into the next.

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LY L A D OW H I E

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Manifest

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Genesis Kai is a Virtual Human; an avatar and

reality and Genesis’ digital realm. This documen-

an artist. Manifest is her documentation of the

tation piece marks her debut as a Virtual Human

birth and inception of her digital body as she

Artist represented in the NYU Tisch x DSLcollec-

floats in a meditative state in a liminal space,

tion VRWSpark metaverse exhibition digitally, in

known as “the Embryo”, her point of origin and

addition to P21 Gallery representing Manifest as

sentience, which sits in between our physical

a physical video installation in Asia.

G E N E S IS K A I

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These Roots of Ours Black hair holds histories that must be acknowledged—it finds itself at many intersec-

tions of identity, of beauty, of fashion, of power. While society relentlessly places its own opinions and critiques onto Black women for simply existing, we have found ways to express our own truths and livelihoods through the roots that rest in our bodies. These Roots of Ours explores these complex intersections through illuminating the versatility that lies within a Black woman’s curls. Produced by an all Black team with an emphasis on collaboration, the project serves as a playground for Black creativity and innovation. Hair becomes an entity of its own—forming connections, shifting as the world moves around it, reaching out from one’s scalp and owning its many manifestations.

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R HI A N Y D D H Y LTO N

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Subscribe Now explores life as a college student and

to connect with the students I interviewed and pho-

sex worker. It is a collaboration with student sex work-

tographed via Instagram, reddit, online articles and

ers to break the stigma surrounding sex work and talk

personal connections - which I found was the best

about the balance of being a full-time student and sex

method to get people involved in the project. Even-

worker. Intimate portraits give an insight into the part of

tually, I moved from photographing online sex work-

their identity they usually keep hidden. I photographed

ers to any type of sex worker.

in places the students not only created content, but also slept and did most of their school work and online classes. My aim to show that sex workers are people you love and not just a foreign concept of how someone is living their life. Interviews highlight career goals and relationships with friends and family, alongside the negatives and positives of sex work. At the beginning of COVID-19, I found that many of my peers were turning to online jobs after moving home or ending their on campus positions. Several began creating content using Only Fans as the site became more popular and well-known. I was able

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TA L I A ROS E BA RTO N

Through Subscribe Now I have met and interviewed amazing students across the US. I am so grateful to call most of them friends. As I move forward with this work and after, I will continue to advocate for more protections and rights for sex workers.

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DECADES IN A MONTH When Joseph Rodriguez assigned me to shoot ten rolls of film on the subway, I took it way too seriously. I spent hours on the train every day doing what can only be described as spying on an unprepared public. There was an intensity in the air. There was no personal space. People hated each other. The New York underground was in full force, and just a month after completing these images, COVID changed the world. In its last few moments, I paid close attention to the complicated ecosystem of the unmasked subway. A year later it’s clear that it will never be the same.

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W YAT T HU MP H REYS

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The Empty Room 162

Looking at a box of used textbooks, diaries, and

tached memories and the lost part of myself. The

notebooks in the storage room, I barely remem-

faint childhood memories and daydreaming sce-

bered that I spent almost 10 years in this city. In

narios might not be remembered through my own

mid-2019, I revisited the city of Linhai in the Zhe-

memories, but the texts in my diaries from the box

jiang province of China due to the passing of my

could be used as a guiding brochure to help me

grandma. I met family members—I couldn’t even

recreate my childhood memory through the work

say their names properly. The elementary school

of photography. The scenes in this series of photo-

I attended had already been modernized a long

graphs are based on the handwritten texts from my

time ago. I was submerged in the void of my de-

elementary school diaries.

Y I PA N

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OCD runs in my family. Once you notice it, it is unmistakable, and the impact it has on a growing child is long-lasting. My limited emotional vocabulary of polar opposites was deeply etched into me. Clean and dirty, good and bad, useful and useless. While my thinking was encouraged to be fluid and nuanced, my feelings remained binary well past the times I was reading books about heroes and villains fighting for good and evil. I have been trying to break out of that rigid system I locked myself into. Flipping through photos I took in some of the most tumultuous years of my life, feelings wash over me that I cannot put a name to. Details of images, environments, or even colors have sparked deep rooted emotions that struggle to come forward. My fluency in three languages feels like a burden rather than an asset, as if they were all playing an endless game of hide-and-seek with the words I can’t grasp, but I know exist. Imagine that you’ve found these images in a hidden corner of the house. I invite you to help unlock some of those familiar feelings, and to explore the nuances that rest between the simple titles scratched onto the covers.

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JU DY Z HA N G

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the collections, in no particular order 16 8

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Mental Illness is an uphill battle. It’s a boxing match with no bell. It’s a rollercoaster that you’re handcuffed to. It’s juggling emotions like chainsaws. It’s ugly crying at 2pm in the middle of a Denny’s. It’s self loathing, self righteousness, and self doubt all bundled into one confused little brain. But, most of all, mental illness is a balance. A very delicate balance.

bull in a china shop

Upon being diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder in 2018, life quickly became overwhelming. Waves of depression hit like tsunamis, immediately followed by two week stints of “I’m invincible.” It felt as if my entire personality was a footnote in the DSM-5. It was a hide and seek match with self, never quite knowing who was searching for who. I cycled through medication like socks and got my blood drawn monthly. I was offered a litany of experimental treatments, all which sounded more like thrill rides than medical procedures. I felt completely out of control as my life began to spiral. The apathy of depression took me down very dark paths. I learned a lot about myself. I suffered. But then, things got better.

jump !

Through, sculpture, performance art, photography, graphic design, and parody, “Bull in a China Shop” strives to capture the benevolent lunacy that is my on-going battle with mental illness, the pursuit of stability, and overall; acceptance. With love, Jeffrey

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FACULTY 2018—2022

STAFF

Chris Berntsen

Kalila Abdur-Razzaq

Wafaa Bilal

Edgar Castillo

Terry Boddie

Jordan Cruz

Isolde Brielmaier

Niki Kekos

Kalia Brooks

Patricia McKelvin

Sandrine Colard

Mary Notari

Yolanda Cuomo

Adam Ryder

Thomas Drysdale

Caleb Savage

Printed by Fort Orange Press, Albany, NY Copyright © 2021 New York University Tisch School of the Arts 721 Broadway, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10003 www.tisch.nyu.edu/photo tischphoto@nyu.edu 212-998-1930

Cate Fallon Aidrian Fernandez Milanes Nichole Frocheur Snow Fu Mark Jenkinson Melissa Harris Elizabeth Kilroy Lili Kobielski Astrid Lewis-Reedy Bobbie Richardson Elaine Mayes Ari Melenciano

THANK YOU Allyson Green, Dean, Tisch School of the Arts Deborah Willis, PhD, Chair, Department of Photography and Imaging

Editha Mesina Diana McClure Lorie Novak Paul Owen Karl Peterson Christopher Phillips Shelley Rice Joseph Rodriguez Yelaine Rodriguez Laura Roumanos Bayeté Ross Smith Jeffrey Henson Scales Lauren van Haaften-Schick Deborah Willis, PhD Cheryl Yun-Edwards

This catalog was designed and produced by Boie Studio in collaboration with the students in the Senior Directed Project courses. www.boiestudio.com Instagram @boiestudio