Anthony Alvarez

ARTIST STATEMENT:

Coexistence

This project is a way for me to visually illustrate my whole self, a way to capture the existence and interaction of the pieces/parts of me as I continue to go about my day-to-day routine. However mundane and inconsequential that may seem. The coexistence of these selves seems to happen when I least expect it and through this body of work I have been able to create a dialogue and capture this coexistence.

BIO:

Originally from Newark, NJ Anthony Alvarez graduated from Pratt Institute in 2005 with a BFA in Photography. He currently works as a retoucher for Pochron Studios in Brooklyn as well as maintaining an active freelance client list. His work has been exhibited nationally.

Carey Kirkella

ARTIST STATEMENT:

This is a selection of images from a series entitled, "Dance Recital". They are documentary color photographs of young girls backstage during their dance recital performances. I photographed several different dance recitals in New Jersey and Pennsylvania between 2001 and 2007. The moments and portraits are captured spontaneously, without direction.

Contemporary American Culture and social traditions fascinate me and influence how I choose the subjects I photograph. In this series, I am drawn to the in-between moments before the dancers get ushered out into the spotlight, the personality traits that are revealed, and the vulnerable moments within the heightened energy of anticipation. It is evident that the girls are getting a glimpse of some of the issues they will face as they grow into adolescents and women. Body image, the concept of beauty and ideas of social conformity are taught subconsciously and are taking shape.

BIO:

Carey Kirkella grew up in the suburbs of New York. She has been making photographs since she was twelve years old and earned a BFA on a full scholarship from Pratt Institute in 1999. Carey is a freelance photographer specializing in environmental portraits, documentary, and fine art. She has exhibited her work locally and internationally, and she covers editorial and advertising assignments. Carey lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Laurie Sermos

ARTIST STATEMENT:

Laurie Sermos’ color photographs often deal with the visible intersection of natural and created environments. Within these modern landscape images, nature or constructed environments of nature are represented as places to be considered and looked at. The environments photographed are often places built with an intended functionality. However through the act of photography, we are able to pause and engage with these environments in a way that allows for a different kind of reflection.

BIO:

Laurie Sermos had her first photographic experience at age 8, shooting Polaroid’s in her backyard in New Jersey. She has continued her photographic practice since, and studied photography at Pratt Institute (BFA, 1999), and Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College (MFA, 2006). She has exhibited her work nationally and abroad. Laurie currently teaches photography at Rutgers University, and Pratt Institute. She has also taught with the University of Georgia’s studies abroad program in Corona, Italy (2006, 2008).

Mat Szwajkos

ARTIST STATEMENT:

Celebrity photography has lost the bond between subject and photographer. Too often these days, images are created behind a velvet rope or a publicist's arm. The photos in this book are intimate moments between me and my subjects at concerts, fashion shows, press conferences, parties and private events. Some I met moments before I took their photo and some I have worked with for years. I have built enough trust with each of my subjects to put a lens six to eight inches from their faces. Each image forms a connection to me, with the camera and the viewer.

BIO:

Mat Szwajkos majored in Photography at Pratt Institute and received his BFA in Photography in 2001. From 2000 to 2002 he was the assistant photographer at the architectural firm Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates in Philadelphia. In the fall of 2002 he returned to New York to pursue commercial and advertising photography. He has exhibited and published around the world in newspapers and magazines.

Orrie King

ARTIST STATEMENT:

“I am constantly struck by the beauty found in unexpected places. My photographs draw the viewer into the world of subtle idiosyncrasies found in familiar moments and objects. While my work is most often defined by the bold use of color, the forms are emphasized by the sculptural quality of light and shadow.”

BIO:

Orrie King grew up in a suburb north of Boston. She was first inspired by photography while viewing Robert Frank’s “The Americans” as a freshman in high school. Later, being further inspired by the versatility of the medium itself and studying the work of photographers, painters, and installation artists, she went on to study at Pratt Institute in New York and the Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. While traveling around the world, she turns the camera on herself, those closest to her, the objects surrounding her, and strangers from many cultural backgrounds. Her images are intimate, subtle documentations that are often familiar and somewhat abstract at the same time. Orrie has shown her work in galleries in the United States and other countries. She shoots freelance for various publications, including The New York Times.

Peter Riesett

ARTIST STATEMENT:

TESTAMENT is a photographic series that documents the packing up of a life after death. After my grandfather's passing in 2003, I routinely returned to this space to capture what I could before this dwelling disappeared. Much like an archeological dig, souvenirs, texts, and objects filled the space, allowing me to have wordless conversations with the objects of disuse. With every visit the void and absence of life became greater within these walls. Through the wandering process of investigation, compositions were revealed, often transcending into metaphor.

Personality traits become unveiled by how and what is accumulated, stockpiled, and often cherished. These attachments and idiosyncrasies, portrayed through the collision, placement, and relationship of everyday objects intrigue me. Through the gaze of photography, I am led to explore, uncover, contemplate and question my surroundings.

The action of photography becomes a way to integrate myself into any given situation. Not manipulating the found scene, working with available light, and using an unflinching documentary approach, I strive to engage viewers in a dialogue that is both physical and emotional. This is a call to witness.

BIO:

Peter Riesett currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. His interest in photography began at a young age, when he recognized the deeper meaning behind a static image. A graduate of Maryland Institute College of Art (B.F.A.) and the Pratt Institute (M.F.A.), he continues to pursue his passion for photography and the dialogue that follows. His work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally, and also resides in the permanent collection at The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. Last year, Peter was recognized as a winner of the Flash Forward 2007: Emerging Photographers Competition, through The Magenta Foundation. Most recently, he has been awarded 'Honorable Mention' for his book of the series Testament by Blurb's Photography.Book.Now International Competiton, which included a traveling salon showcasing the winners in San Francisco, London, Cologne and New York. His work will soon appear in the November 2008 issue of Esquire magazine (Russian edition), to illustrate an essay by David Sedaris.

Philippe Rohdewald

ARTIST STATEMENT:

I am primarily attracted to our internal and external factors that keep us in touch with our dark sides and seek to explore those in my personal work, which is quite different from my commercial fashion work. These factors may be as trivial as everyday politics or as intricate as pockets of our minds that remain unexplored to most of us. While not trying to respond to ever changing standards of so called political correctness, I occasionally use my work as simple means to convey my moral beliefs and duties. Whereas at other times, I prefer to just entertain the viewers with what they might be attracted to…sometimes subconsciously so.

BIO:

Philippe Rohdewald, a native of Luxembourg, moved to New York City in 1996 to complete his studies in film production at Pratt Institute with highest honors in 2000. After a short lived career in cinematography, he decided to dedicate himself to fashion photography and quickly was able to establish himself with clients such as Tracy Reese, Lacoste, Diane Von Furstenberg and MTV Networks. His work consists for the most part of catalog, advertising and ecommerce.

In the meantime, his list of clients has grown consistently with household names while his current objective consists if enriching his personal body of work. It can be easily differentiated from his commercial work by identifying sinister subject matters and the influence of “film noir” and foreign art house cinema.

His work has been published in Vogue Nippon, Elle Japan, V Magazine, Surface Magazine and Photo (French edition).

Tod Seelie

ARTIST STATEMENT:

The photographs from Of Quiet are about a home. Home for me has always been a very important concept, and often times a difficult one to pin down. When I was twelve my parents got divorced and I began switching custody and “homes” every week. For a while my father lived in the attic in his sister's house, and so home became my fold-out bed and the corner where I kept my legos. At the same time I tried very hard to make a connection to the place, with its beige carpeting, scratchy towels, and a backyard that was mostly a tree-covered hill ending at a fence on a major road. As my father slowly made the transition into a more permanent residence, the turbulence of growing up began to replace the family troubles. Finding no stability or comfort in the actual houses I was supposed to think of as home, and having no real base of friends in my school or social life, I came to see common, everyday places as home: the empty parking lot in front of the always empty auto repair shop, the sunny spot of grass on the east side of a highway overpass, or the road along the railroad tracks with a wide berm that was always full of broken glass.

My affinity for these types of oft-overlooked locations eventually manifested itself as a constant and mildly obsessive subject of my photography.

BIO:

Tod Seelie has photographed in fifteen countries on five different continents. His work has appeared in publications such as Rolling Stone, The NY Times, New York Magazine, Spin, Marie Claire, Jane, Vice, i-D, Paper, XXL, Art Forum, Art In America, Flash Art, Parade Magazine, Time Out NY, Adbusters, Death + Taxes, and Hamburger Eyes among others.

Select clients include Jagjaguwar Records, Secretly Canadian Records, Flavorpill, Workman Publishing, and fashion labels Rogan, Loomstate, and Anon Optics.

Tod has exhibited work in New York, Berlin, Tokyo, Paris, San Francisco, Chicago, Houston, Cleveland, Miami and at Mass MoCA. His work has also appeared in various photography books, such as The Vice Photo Book, Street World, Backyard Shakedown and Hijacked.