The Power of Failing

About a week ago my Photo Arts teacher asked my class to create a photograph that portrays some type of transformation. Lost for ideas and short on time, I finally settled on photographing my friend, Hannah, in two different looks. The first would be relaxed and simple while the second would be edgy and constricted. My idea was to show that real beauty was shown through the girl who was comfortable in her own skin, rather than covered by makeup and glamorous clothes. But sometimes life doesn't stick to our original ideas. When I showed my work to the class, they were less than impressed with my "transformation," in fact it was agreed that it wasn't a transformation at all. I looked at my final photograph for a while, and noticed that it was actually the opposite. It never seizes to amaze me, how the world of photography teaches me a new lesson everyday. And here, in my picture I considered to be a failure, I saw a girl, without makeup or fancy clothes, standing back-to-back with herself, caked with makeup and zipped into a brand new dress, but the look on her face was the same confident, "I rule the world" face Hannah wore every day. And here I realized that sometimes the exterior doesn't change the interior, sometimes fashionable clothes and makeup, or lack thereof, doesn't change a person at all. Sometimes, what's inside a person is really all you ever see, no matter how much the outside has transformed. And to find that, all I had to do was fail.

Finding My Story

In Spring of 2010, I was challenged by my Photo Arts teacher to photograph in the style of a famous artist. Not knowing what interested me other than fashion, I chose Nigel Barker, "noted fashion photographer." I struggled to figure out a way to incorporate this style into my work; most people don't have million dollar gowns in the back of their closet, not to mention an exotic jungle or breathtaking canyon in their back yard. It took a while for me to realize that my images did not have to be an exact copy of Barker's work, in fact, that would be completely useless. What I finally discovered was that I had to find my own style, my own story to tell, in order to really call my images art. In this discovery I was able to find my own creative voice, not a copy of another's. Venturing through a typical pennsylvania farm; my gorgeous and extremely cooperative friends Michelle, Elaine, Nora, and Marie, helped me find to beauty in the most unexpected settings. And so my story began...