EXHIBITION TEXT:
Isabel Santiago
Forgotten America, November 2015
Photography Collage
The purpose of this collage, created by Isabel Santiago, was to express the forgetfulness of America. This building was one of many vacant buildings found by this artist, however, this particular building peaked her interest far more than the others. Inspired by Matthew Christopher's Abandoned America: an Autopsy of the American Dream, the goal was to find vacant places of her own to photograph. As this collage is a part of a series, these four photos in this collage are some of the more interesting ones taken in the vacant building.
PLANNING: |
DEVELOPING IDEAS: |
Setting out on this journey, I had the idea and goal to find abandoned locations and capture their true essences. By photographing them, I was able to do just so. With this said, my main goal was to take multiple photos in any location I may come across to capture everything from different angles.
|
As I began finding more and more buildings, the idea to make this an entire series came to life. Then, to put photos from corresponding locations into collages began to make a lot of sense to me. The idea of changing the photos from a normal color to black and white also came to mind here. This would give my images a more old-time look to them and that's what the main purpose of this project was.
|
ARTIST INSPIRATION: |
REFLECTION: |
I was inspired to begin this project, based off of Matthew Christopher's Abandoned America: an Autopsy of the American Dream project. Some of the images he has been able to capture are just phenomenal and I wanted that experience for myself. His photos intrigued me to a much greater extent that deemed possible and the anxiousness was building up from the moment I saw some of his work.
|
Overall, this is my all time favorite project to have worked on. Not only did this piece come with an outstanding finished product, but an extraordinary experience as well. The only flaw I see in this project is that I did not have the opportunity to get to explore more abandoned/deserted places because I know that would have made for a much better and larger outcome than what I was actually able to produce.
|