I have developed a strong interest in impulses – small curiosities that form, even about seemingly insignificant parts of our everyday lives. While the majority of such impulses pass through a filter in our minds without even being taken into account, it can be enlightening to reconsider their potential significance as thoughts that could lead to gaining certain new perspectives.

Throughout the past year, my work as a photographer has struggled, flourished, and changed, grew as my inspirations have, and has finally become more in-line with my expectations for what this senior project could become as I gradually narrowed my focus down to the concept of dealing with impulse-driven ways of taking photographs. I have gotten into the habit of driving and walking around with no preconceived idea of where I will end up. I often disregard initial thoughts or hesitations that might try to stop me. As long as I have the free time, I go with it. This kind of free wandering has inspired me to keep photographing over the course of the year – spontaneous and solitary exploration of an infinite span of ground that surrounds me, carrying with me only a camera and an eager eye, looking for something to pull from an otherwise ordinary setting.

My experiences with photography are continuously evolving. During the course of my studies here, I’ve gradually moved my focus towards creating more nonrepresentational photographs. My connection with any subject matter through the camera continues to shape how I think about the medium both as my primary form of expression and as a way to investigate the self. I have come to carefully consider and appreciate how the camera can transform vision. To expand on this notion, I try to vary my use of the lens and break out of “traditional” ways of framing subject matter. When I photograph, I make a conscious effort to create something that is visually unique while subsequently investigating the individual process that occurs when a viewer sees and responds to a photograph. Much of work in this show reflects my interest in challenging this viewer’s response to an image by thinking about how the human process of perception informs one’s reaction to something visual, consequently influencing their understanding of it.