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For my final art piece this last term. This is the statement that went along with it.

Raw Talent Means Nothing If It’s Green
    Having been inspired by the everyday life of a typical teenager, I became curious about their common activities: texting, surfing the web, hanging out with friends, shopping, and “doing nothing.” The very idea that such a young person spends a good portion of their time invested in what society calls, menial was the notion that pushed me further into this project.
    Building a concept and then executing it was challenging. After I had come up with the idea, I became a bit frustrated because there were many avenues for me to take. Initially, my plans were to document a group of young adults - preferably teenagers - in their natural settings but as my research progressed I found that to be unnecessary. I did a bit of fieldwork by simply watching people and what they do, I went about asking teenagers to get a first-hand account, then I turned to the online articles to solidify my findings. It was not until I viewed the works of Darren Sylvester did I finally know exactly how to go about my proposed work. From there I looked at similar artists such as Tom Hussey, Lise Safati, and Abbas and found that with the proper use of color and camera angle I could  attain a precise look in my own images. Utilizing such components would force the viewer to see the pictures the way I desired them to.
     From the choice of scenes, I chose to set up tableaus of a young woman sleeping in her bed; rummaging through her refrigerator for something to eat; sitting at her desk while browsing the web; talking on the phone in her bedroom; laying out by the pool; and eating a bowl of cereal. In each image the woman is alone and looking away from the gaze of the camera. These were done purposefully in order to show the audience how distant we can become in our everyday activity. My aim was to portray how such mundane and almost automatic actions can have serious impacts on your life: distance and complacency. 
    By photographing such common activities like the ones previously mentioned, I hoped that viewers would relate and then be lead to question themselves as well as their motives for doing such things. Does constantly doing this task actually contribute positively to my life in the long run? Can I cut down the amount of times I do this?  Is this as important as spending my time doing something more tangible? Why is it that I always use that as a form of procrastination? With that said, while these set of photos can be viewed by anyone, the main aim is at the younger generation ranging from 13 - 24 years of age.  I truly desire for them to be inspired to change at least one aspect of their day-to-day and replace it with something that will push them beyond their boundaries.