PHOTOGRAPHY
Bouquet of Light
Statement: Bouquet of Light is a series of three original classical piano songs that was released on Youtube in January 2020 and published in April 2020 in Beacon, UBC's Journal of Media Studies. The three songs are respectively titled “Out of the Ordinary,” “Flowers and Candles” and “Bouquet of Light," and each is complented by an album cover. In the case of each album cover, my dear friend Vasilisa took pictures of me, and then I used Adobe Photoshop to edit photo mashups; the backgrounds of all images consist of original photographs that I took during my study abroad term in Scotland in 2019. For more information on how the songs and album covers work together, click here.
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Expressive Self-Portrait
Statement: In 2017, one of my photography classes was assigned to produce expressive or subjective self-portraits. Along with articulating my tendency to drift off into flights of fancy, communicating the idea of intertextuality was important to me. Given that novel-writing had occupied much of the past decade of my life, it seemed essential to include references to the practice in my self-portrait. Indeed, the pages scattered all over my bed are draft pages of my novel. Beyond the medium of writing, I further make allusions to the medium of photography itself; the camera device can be seen appearing in a reflection from a small mirror. The photograph was brieflly retouched using Adobe Photoshop.
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Fictional World
Statement: Each of these three photos was taken for different photography courses that I took over the past couple of years. In going through my previous work, I realized that there were fairtytale-like and gothic themes pervading many of my pieces. Much of this tendency can be traced to the novel manuscript that I had been working on throughout my adolescence. Ultimately, assembling these three photographs into one series represents an exploration of the transcendence of art from one medium to another.
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A Journey of One's Self Breaking Free of Confinement and Coming to Light
Statement: This four-part collection of photographs was originally submitted as a part of my portfolio when I was applying and to UBC's Bachelor of Media Studies program. Enriching my love for storytelling, it revolves around the theme of hidden selves, illustrating one's journey to individuation. After having one's self hidden, or repressed, in Part 1, and after navigating through limbo in Part 2, one finally pursues individuality to the fullest in Part 3. Taken with a Canon Powershot G14, all pictures from these parts were subsequently enhanced in Google’s Picasa.