Sarah Krey - BFA Photography - Essay

 

Sarah Krey

BFA Photography

    In my current work, I have been focusing on capturing the human experience in the form of senses. How do our bodies visually resemble nature? How are we emotionally connected to physical objects around us? How do our past memories affect our present actions? I am hoping to create a feeling of connection with the viewers of my photographs. How has their human experience been similar, or completely different? Recently, I have been exploring black and white film photography. The practice of physically creating my photographs from beginning to end has broadened my ideas on this subject even more. The latest project I did was titled "Refuge," which was about how the doors and windows of a house protect us from the outside world, while simultaneously inviting us to also go outside (Photo 12 in my portfolio is one picture from the series). I also do freelance photography and use this idea in that practice as well. The physical connections that people have with each other also shapes their experience in this life, whether it be between partners, mother and child, etc.

    One photographer that has really been an inspiration to me this semester is Arno Rafael Minkkinen. He experiments with double exposures and challenges how we see the natural world around us. The first piece in my portfolio, "Eye on the Horizon" was greatly influenced by him. I took a picture of a pretty sunset one evening coming home, and when I was uploading and editing it later, I realized how much it looked like a human eye. From that point on, I was really amazed at how much of nature resembles the human body, and I am currently working on this idea as a larger body of work. For instance, the limbs of a leafless tree mimic the veins in a human body. The curve of a mountain range mirrors that of human shoulders. We are part of nature and nature is part of us.