Donnell BonapartE
Values
The difference between a public park and graffiti is that a lot of people want to visit the park—walk their dogs, sit on a bench, feed the ducks—but they don’t want to see graffiti there. Why do we admire one thing and not another—especially when that other thing it art? It is just a difference of opinion. People find attraction in different ways, and I want to bring those differences together in my photos.
Kendrea Chiosi
Self-Titled
This work is all about the process. I edited the photos in Lightroom, playing around with the color settings. I like to bring up the saturation of the colors and bring out the blues. Walking in Druid Hill Park, I passed some water drain grates and shot with my flash to see better inside them. I ended up capturing my reflection. I enjoy examining how the subjects are working in the composition and finding any similarities that I didn’t notice when taking the shot. For example, the photo of the subjects sitting on a wall where two of the people are looking in the same direction and the other two are looking down.
timothy cotton
Lights, Camera, Action!
The people in these photos are all performing candid actions, which give me a lot more possibilities in photography than posed images do. Because people are always moving, simply looking at people as they engage in everyday activities can be creative. The natural lighting of these photos is not always perfect, but it helps me create something different from studio photos with one kind of lighting. This style of shooting lets me see something different every time.
marc cruise
Comfort Zone
I am, for the most part, a shy person and photography is my way of steeping out of my comfort zone. Being a photographer forces me to interact with my subjects and see them in a way I never imagined before. This set of images is the result of stepping outside myself.
janae franklin
Kalopsia
These photos come from nature to remind me that the beauty of the world of God’s creation is not just natural but also human. Women, like flowers, bloom and die from the challenges of nature. Also like flowers they bloom again and end up stronger than before.
liz gomez-peÑa
Humane Sonder
We don’t usually think deeply about the people and things around us. When we have an epiphany, we look around and feel a sonder as strangers pass by. Maybe we are unaware that they exist. These photos will help make you aware of what exists.
tyra jackson
React with Emotion
The title of this series says it all. These are pictures of people’s reactions to moments in everyday life. The action of reaction lights people up, makes them bright. In order to take these pictures, I also had to react to what I saw. Reaction is the key to my art.
kamari james
Thief
I hate that you trusted me, because now I have to do my job. Capturing the moment that I stole from the natural. Discovering what I should just enjoy. Yeah, it looks pretty, but why hold it hostage? You simply can’t trust me, because I’m going to let the moment free—the moment the photographer kept in captivity.
briana pennington
Art History
I capture street and editorial photography with small format cameras in order to more easily portray the unposed, natural appearance of people. I enjoy photographing the depths beneath the arrangement that society deems “perfection.”
My photography means I am vulnerable to the images I see: I show empathy and put myself in the world to capture and understand the emotions that travel through each image. I want to photograph stories beyond time and humanity—create art history.
lauren prager
Hand of God
Johns Hopkins researchers recently found evidence that people who report having encountered God live happier lives following those profound experiences. As Lauren selected her images for this series, she chose a photo of a cloud and said, “It’s the hand of God!” Her interpretation of this image, and her beautiful monochrome rendition of it, sums up an idea she invokes often: that art can help us perceive the uttermost.
Of course, not all of Lauren’s images find God in the sky—they might capture the perfect physics of a batter’s swing, the geometry of a storm drain—but her best images do reach for spiritual isolation, for a sense of meditation, regardless of their subject’s form.
—Somer Greer
samaria tyler
City Motions
City Motions means life. It means life will always move on in an irreducible, irreversible motion. Through the power of photography, we can capture moments that move by quickly and keep them forever.
