Aiko Alvarez-Gibson
The Details in Our Fabric
To have a sense of community is something that we, as humans, feel is indispensable; we crave a place to call home, a place that at the end of the day is just as much ours as we are its. What is it about a community that connects us to the sense of home it provides us? In the end, that connection is a string of memories that ties us to any given place, or group of people even, through the comfortable sensation of nostalgia. We find comfort in familiarity, and it's the small details of a community that trigger the memory. It's the scent a breeze carries with it, the vibrancy of the colors of nature on a cloudless day, the distant sound of music and laughter on a Saturday morning. Perhaps it's the arrangement of a window display, or the altered reflection of a scene in a window. Whatever the triggers may be, we experience them daily, often catching ourselves saying "Hmm, that reminds me of..."
The following photographic collection explores these catalysts. I focused my lens on parts of the subject, capturing a detail as opposed to the overall scene, making my subjects the personal details that make up the fabrics of our lives.
Paull Hubbard
Leaf Shutter
I explored the floral aspect of the city as we went out to analyze the world around us. My goal in this photography class was to find where vegetation and plant life met the concrete, brick walls, pavement, and other architecture throughout the urban areas that we visited. I tried to blur the lines between urban development and the natural elements of Baltimore.
Kamari James
Shadowless Light
To me, it looks like I'm holding back the rain with one arm and the wind with the other. The grey not of age but of shadow has more meaning than color, from the right perspective. I love the gloom that a light fog holds, but I will never understand what it captures. I am tired of looking for meaning in everything when life itself is a mystery. This light is shadowless by day. The problem is the meaning. I am here to say there is no meaning, just expression.
Dionna Jones
In Plain Sight
This series includes photos that find humor and irony in things most people would overlook in their daily lives. These photos allow you to see what is most intriguing to me -- simple things like shadows, plants, stickers, and comics. Through my work, I will help you look more deeply into what you usually look past.
Lindsey Leslie
Get Around
Transportation is a central element of every society. We all use something to get around our neighborhoods, cities, countries and the world. Transportation connects us.
My photos focus on abandoned structures previously used for transportation (and now left to decay). What happens to these structures when we (either as individuals or as a society) move on to new modes of transportation?
Sage Okolo
Dogs and Street Photography
Dogs
In all honesty, I just like dogs. I find them to be as essential to the human experience as literature or art. They are the companionship and warmth and love that we as humans believe we deserve. I chose not to include the owners because I wanted no distraction from the dogs. These dogs act of their own volition, smiling and being stoic. They are beyond cute.
Street Photography
My goal was to mess around with the principle of chiaroscuro. These photos were taken in constant movement, either from me or from my subject. I wanted life to keep on going, regardless of my presence. I wanted to simply be the moment. To capture the world in stillness or in motion. I wanted to be the thing to hold the moment, the scene, the person, the action of Baltimore. I hope you can see that in my art.
Christopher Sykes
A Closer Look
A Closer Look was produced to depict, in detail, different subjects' characteristics that often go unnoticed, like those of backyard shrubbery and concrete walls. These are objects that, if given a closer look, could inspire us, even if they are everyday things. My goal was to show the significance of these objects and how they can be incorporated into beautiful compositions.
Neiko Thomas
Red Pill, Blue Pill
In my conversations with Neiko Thomas about his work, he often expressed a love of fundamentals: "I like the colors," he said of the photos in Red Pill, Blue Pill. "At night, you can see them better." When I asked him why he chose to photograph big-box stores, Neiko said, "I guess it's because anyone can recognize them. They have the same signs everywhere, so you can focus on the shapes and colors. You don't have to wonder what you're looking at." This is the photographic eye of Neiko Thomas: bold, persistent, and fundamentally aware.
—Somer Greer
