ABOUT ALEXIA 

The images presented include the applications of perspective, composition, color, and set design. Through the use of the bright colors and themes used, I am able to capture the viewer’s attention and ignite their imagination. Although a narrative is born through the images, I refrain from writing specific passages to go along with the various projects in order for the audience to create their own narrative . The aim is not to spread a specific message, but for the viewer to take in the various motifs and devise their own “tale” that appeals to them in that moment.

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The use of color helps  generate different sensations and feelings that assist the viewer in navigating the photographs. I believe color has the power of being able to change the emotions, perspectives, and thoughts of an individual and I try to manipulate  that in my photography to create more impact. Set design is also crucial to my work as it transforms the mind into a completely different time and place, whatever I want it to be. That alone is powerful. For many of my projects, I  use family heirlooms, clothing, housewares, and trinkets to design the space and mood of my photographs. It helps me connect to the ones who came before me and create a bridge from past to the present. Historically my family has been involved in photography.  My great grandfather and uncle, during the early 1900s, shared the Karides Brother’s Photography Studio business. Knowing that I have the same curiosity and passion for photography as my ancestors generates a sense of self and creates a stronger yearning to create and foster that familial creative passion. It is safe to say that my affection and fervor for art, photography specifically, is very nearly genetic.

 

I am able to create and design my own world with photography  using various tools such as film cameras,  digital cameras, and set design. I have gained a strong passion to remain  curious when it comes to creating, and test how the different mediums I use can change the process of creativity and the outcome of the work. I realized when using the 35 mm film camera  that I appreciate the scarcity  of each click of the camera as you have to pay much closer attention to detail due to the lack of bountiful space that digital cameras allow. Alternatively, I also admire the process with digital photography where you are able to experiment more and are not held back by the 36 frame limit. I enjoy dabbling with both types of cameras and have been able to appreciate these differences.

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The desire to tell stories drives my passion for photography, a passion which has been handed down to me by my great-great uncle Demitrios and great-grandfather Georgios, photographers who immigrated from Greece in the early 1910s. Studying hundreds of their photographs has given me insight into a world just beyond my reach, yet, with these photos,  I can hold their enigmatic stories in my hands. Behind my own lens, I become an observer of the daily nuances of human life that usually go unseen, just as they did. Through the camera, I have been shocked into acknowledgment of the impoverished children in the Middle East and have seen first-hand the drastic inequalities that exist juxtaposed with an exorbitance of wealth just a few streets away. I have also become spellbound by the colorful customs and indispensable traditions of my ancestors from Greece. In addition, my own contemporary society provides a poignant backdrop for photography today.

         

Many of these images have deepened my understanding of the human condition and its varying forms, allowing me to experience a truer sense of diversity and a closer connection to my world. For example, the photograph Marred is the tattoo on my 80-year-old great-aunt’s forearm forced on her when she lived in Jordan as a child.  Some people get tattoos to express their individuality. Unknown to me, for my aunt, a Christian who was living in a predominantly Muslim country, the tattoo is an indelible reminder of having been physically marked as a non-entity, a second-class citizen, by the government.  Learning of her story as I photographed that tattoo while my father translated for her, I felt not only a wrenching repulsion for the meaning of the tattoo, but a deepened connection to so many others who have been, or are being, dehumanized.  When I use color film, I can explore visual differences. Using black and white, I can also emphasize dramatic situations, intensifying the connection of subject to viewer and weaving varying perspectives together within one photograph--in the case of Marred, my own innocence and my great-aunt’s life experience.

 

 As an Art Major, and Film/TV and Digital Media Minor, I am committed to presenting such moments of personal revelation using multiple medias. No matter who or what I choose as subject, structure, composition, scale or edit, my aim is to emphasize the emotions of each individual or setting, to present the intimate uniqueness of diverse cultures, or people, or places, through the most appropriate artistic tools. I am excited to be broadening and developing these during my studies here.

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