Taylor Fikes

_RAW

Taylor Fikes sits on steps My thesis project is a series of photographs titled "_RAW." The images are a result of my exploration into capturing raw personality and evidence in a natural, unaltered state. I ventured to my childhood home and photographed spaces and belongings left behind by my family members with the intent of capturing their personalities, values, and habits. I achieved this by digitally photographing spaces with mainly natural light, and I utilized naturally balanced editing and white balances in post processing. I captured each member of my immediate family: father, mother, brother, grandmother, and myself. I also featured my late grandfather’s belongings in order to incorporate the sentiment of a lost loved one. There are specific perspective shifts throughout the images to emphasize varying eye levels and perspectives; some images are from a worm’s eye view to portray the perspective of a child in the home, while others are taken from the eye level according to the height and perspective of the individual being personified. Thirdly, there are photographs that should be seen by the audience from the audience member’s perspective. These confrontational images are taken from a straight on angle of the space, which forces the viewer to analyze the details of the space for themselves. Each photograph is meant to be analyzed for clues and details pertaining to the individualism of my family members. The imagery is purposefully void of these physical people with the intent for the focus to be completely on their surroundings and evidence of their presence. Each image is a personification of a member of my family; they are portraits without people. My desire for this series is to challenge the viewer to explore the many details of my photographs and compare and contrast their own family experience to mine.

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