Final Project- Ariel

Artists Statement: Hello everyone, meet Ariel. You might not have known that harpists name their harps. In fact, many instrumentalists I know name their instruments. Like you might bring a good friend into the studio and bring out their best characteristics, I have been wanting to bring Ariel into the studio. Though they may be inanimate objects to everyone else, for musicians their instruments take on a personified presence. They are our precious babies, our collaborators, and also our voice. Central to this series is a self-portrait which is the first time the instrument is recognizable in a fuller form as a representation of the reality that instruments only carry meaning in relation to the artists that work through them.  In a way, the whole project is a self-portrait, since the instrument is simply an extension of ourselves; and the qualities we love about our instrument are potential strengths that we cannot see as easily just in ourselves. 

Technically, this project also marked my first time using studio lighting. The process was very rewarding, but also more difficult that I had imagined. Creating the lighting that I envisioned took more rearranging and fiddling than I had anticipated. Figuring out what variables to change when seems like an art in itself that makes beautiful photographs, but it is a skill that I look forward to refining over time.




Some enlargements, out of scale: