Gallery: Fall, 01

In the fall of 2001, I gained tremendous insight into my own abilities thanks to Bruno Chalifour. His teaching method was sometimes irreverent, often brutally honest, and always entertaining.

Our first assignment this year was to “express change.” I decided to “express” bread by changing it into toast.

I wouldn’t say I liked the assignment all that much and so I selected what I would consider cop-out subject matter. Regardless, I certainly wanted to create visually appealing images.

Having sluffed off the first assignment I decided to do another project on the same subject. This time I looked at the changes that man makes to the environment. The end is supposed to be an example of nature’s resilience, but it gets lost and confused.

Near the end of the fall 2001 semester at the University of Rochester, one of the few I over-loaded, I was preparing for finals, writing research papers, and trying desperately to develop a good photography project. Not feeling like I had the time to go out searching for some scenery, I decided to stick to my apartment. The project became a discussion about time, space, and priorities. One aspect that struck Bruno was the question, “where is the person who’s supposed to be taking care of the apartment?” He realized that the person he was looking for was behind the camera, doing a photography project instead of maintaining their own life. He seemed pleased by this.