Fall Thesis Statement 

 

 

My initial goals for this work to find and capture unique flaws in the street has amounted to many new ideas. In documenting "imperfections"  I realized that while I have been capturing things that I am naturally drawn to, based on visual interest, I also am capturing images of things that are generally agreed upon as an eyesore, or looked down on by the general public. My aims have been to comment on what is seen as good art, and comparing what we see every day in reality, to what we see every day in images, and how different these two things are. The process of creating this series has brought about the consideration of so many more complex directions than I ever anticipated. I have enjoyed thinking so deeply about a topic that is, by nature, usually left in the dust.

 

For these images, I’ve made visible the invisible editing process that our photos go through. I wanted to critique certain aspects of perfectionism and the strive for perfection that is perpetuated in many facets of the media and images in general. Striving for these goals achieves nothing but a false sense of reality. Also, in the same way that ignoring something doesn’t make the thing disappear, when we remove these perceived flaws from an image, they don’t actually disappear. 

 

I’ve been inspired by ideas of consumerism, representation, reality, and superficiality. Ultimately I do believe that each flaw is in some way is a result of a larger issue or purpose, which often are just not dealt with in the right way. Even as we edit out everything we can, these perceived imperfections will continue to exist and grow, as they are generally only ever dealt with superficially, if at all. This is just like how I dealt with my images, superficially, covering it up. Removing or manipulating the surface of an issue does not change reality.