I have found that i have significantly grown as an artist throughout the past year. I've tried to "resemble" my work after various artists such as Warhol (perspective), Hopper (conceptual ideas), and Lauren Greenfield the artist I refered to in our photographic essay. Greenfield worked with image. Specifically the teenage-girl image. She photographed and filmed young girls just living life, their manorisms and how they interact with each other. I first aimed to shoot Megan O Connor and her Christian values compared to another friend with, not less morals, but just different ones, not intertwined with the Catholic faith.

this concept actually faded fast because of timing issuses. They concept of really too difficult for me to translate and convey to the Viewer so I compromised.

I decided to shoot instead the impact of your actions upon who you are portrayed as to your peers and the world. This sort of plays off of Greenfield's idea of human interaction.

I shot Jesse Mesa and his friend Matthew Morton. They are basically defined as "Skaters" because of their dedication and loyalty to the sport. Both aspire to be pro skateboarders one day soon and work hard everyday to get closer to this goal. Because of this total commitment on their part, they don't really have many friends who don't skateboard as they do. Therefore, this activity almost defines who they are in our community.

Faiza Hasan is also in this series. When i decided to go away from the idea of "A Day in the Life: Megan O Connor" I didn't completely go away from the idea of religion. Faiza is a Muslim girl who, like Megan, takes her religion seriously and it is a major part of her daily life. She is documented praying and devoting her time to her beliefs. This also plays a role in how she is portrayed in society. She is not willing to mask who she is to "fit in" to another role, therefore, she is set apart.