Creative Concepts (Week 1)

In the photography program at the Art Institute of Seattle all students are told to create a "Thesis Project". Typically, this is what you work really hard on for your last few months in school to take with you out into the world. It's like having a portfolio, but all of the work goes together like a photo essay. 

So this class that I'm taking is called "Creative Concepts" and basically what you do in this class is to begin the process of creating your thesis project (or for most of the class is finishing up your thesis project). 

But for me, I'm at the starting part of this whole process, which scares me. In 11 weeks I am supposed to come up with 20 images for my thesis along with my 12 images that I have to complete in my portfolio class. So this is where I have to come up with ideas and come up with them FAST. 

Fortunately for me, I have been thinking long and hard about what I wanted to do for my thesis over the 10 day break we had a week or two ago. I grew up in California with a mom who was and is the strongest person that I know. She always had to work multiple jobs just so that my brother and I could have a better life. She is what I like to call a "survivor". 

I am so inspired by those people in the world that are "survivors" and really take charge of their own lives regardless of how bad their situation might be. I find that small business owners are a group of people that a student like me can look up to. Being in an artistic industry, doing what you want to do is generally "the goal". Artists who make their money in the industry of art are  risk takers (in my mind). Small business owners are like that too; especially those who consider their services to be of an artistic origin  They took a chance to do something that they truly love to do. I find that those people should be celebrated in a group of photographs. 

I would like to photograph people who work in places like the wine industry, the brewing industry, independent artists who make all of their money just by painting or sculpting, musicians who refuse to do anything else but make music, etc. These artists who took a risk in their own lives to take the ultimate plunge of standing up on their own two feet with nothing more than their work to hold them up. These people need to be celebrated and documented. 

I plan to do a series of 20 environmental portraits of these people as my final work as a student of the Art Institute of Seattle.