Senior Jessica Sosa’s project was presented at the Truth in a Shrinking World gallery show on Dec. 8. The show will be on display until Jan. 8. For this image, Sosa took a photo of her friend’s hands and a photo of her friend’s young sister. She said, “The message that I am conveying is how life is literally in our hands, as well as how we should keep life close to us because it is such a precious thing that we must cherish.”
Advanced photography students unleashed their unconscious minds to embrace the paradox of finding truth in the unreal as they created surreal and abstract images through photography and editing techniques.
Students were asked to juxtapose illogical images and play with color to create unnerving and often beautiful art. Their projects were unveiled at the Truth in a Shrinking World show on Dec. 8 in the campus gallery. The show will remain on display through Jan. 8.
Senior Sabrina Ifantis’s collage of human and animal facial features is a homage to great abstract artists Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso. “I originally wanted to recreate a Picasso painting, but when I saw the cat I thought, ‘okay, well now I’m going to do an abstraction collage,’” Ifantis said. “I wanted to do a bunch of faces so I used photos of my friends, my dog, and my neighbor’s cat. I edited them all together to look like one big face.” She chose the green background to complement the cat’s bright green eyes. Ifantis says she enjoys using Photopea, an editing program available on the Chromebook. “Last year, we had to take all of our photos on our phone so now if I take a photo on the camera, and if I don’t love the way it turned out, I can upload it on Google Drive and edit it.”Senior Delaney Spillane approached the theme of abstraction and surrealism by making connections visually between an everyday object and the body. “I replaced my fingers with forks,” Spillane said. “I also saw a connection between hands and forks in terms of eating. They already were so closely related in my mind.” Spillane used photoshop and a drawing app to create the borders.Sophomore Vida Seagraves represented an alien’s first time at a grocery store. She had her model put a paper bag over his head because she wanted to represent confusion and disorientation. Seagraves refers to the alien as “it” rather than “he.” “It covers its face because it doesn’t want to expose its real identity,” Seagraves said. She used a Pixlr filter to achieve the bright colors and capture the alien’s confusion. “It’s an alien who’s feeling around because he can’t see,” she said. “He’s trying to figure out where he is.” She took the original photo at the Grocery Outlet on Raymond Avenue and Commonwealth in Fullerton. “There were a few people looking at us because I don’t think you’re allowed to take photos in stores, but we tried to be really fast,” Seagraves said.Senior Taylor Frank used surrealism to highlight how students are struggling with emotions. “I wanted to explore mental health in students and anxiety and how it feels and represent that through images,” Frank said. Her project shows how a person’s inner self is always watching them and that constantly judging oneself creates anxiety. She created the final image by taking two separate photos with a sheet behind her and layering them together. After editing, she darkened the lighting to reflect the dark tone and message. “It’s a mix between multiple exposures and just editing with apps like Pixlr. I took two photos and layered them to look like your inner self was staring at you and always watching you,” Frank said.Senior Jaclyn German used different editing techniques to create her piece which demonstrates a theme of surrealism as well as the darkness in beauty. German says she prefers editing her photos using Pixlr on her phone instead of editing photos on her school-issued Chromebook. “I wanted this photo to show the dark side of something that already seems flawless, like a diamond or gem,” German said. “A lot of people think photos like that are not considered art, especially weird stuff. But I think it is.”Sophomore Madeline Nisbet wanted to convey feelings of worry and paranoia. “My photo is about the feeling of always being watched,” Nisbet said. Nisbet was inspired by her own anxiety to create the project. “I always feel like someone’s watching me, constantly judging me. Everyone’s always looking at me,” Nisbet said. “Even behind closed doors, it feels like there’s someone judging, someone staring.” Nisbet’s process for taking photos included setting up a tripod and timer and exploring with editing tools including Adobe Photoshop. “My editing process is very long because I experiment and see what feels right,” she said. Nisbet stuck to a black and white color palette to depict the fear she often faces battling her anxiety.Senior Bryan Vega captured feelings of romance and love through his piece by layering an image of the moon over a Ferris wheel. “While I was at the fair I noticed a huge Ferris wheel and I remembered this one movie from my childhood that I really enjoyed with my family,” Vega said. “I decided to photograph it because it gave me a sense of joy to think about. Many romantic movies have Ferris wheels or seem to have a connection with them. I decided to add the moon after using the Facetune app because moons also hold memories, mostly romantic ones as well.” Vega also chose the moon imagery because of its connection to night, the time Vega sets aside for himself to write poetry. In the final editing, Vega added a black and white filter to give the photo depth and age.
Reporters Leo Barragan, Sofia Matin, Amy Ramos, Sheila Ruiz, Addam Sapien and Dusty Wheeler contributed to this story.
