underexposed

Underexposed is a group show of photographic work presented by the students of the photography program at the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design.

The title of the show was chosen by the group because of its multiple meanings in relationship to both photography and the early exposure of their work to the public. They are an underexposed group of emerging artists.

The photography students study a range of subjects including; cityscapes, double exposures, Fashion photography, Digital manipulation, pinhole photography, Street photography, portraiture, nature photography, metaphorical photography, and photographs taken with digital cameras and old fashioned film.

This show was designed and executed by the students of the photography department as a part of their photography curriculum. Together they collaborated on choosing imagery, helping each other critique their work and in many cases helping each other with their projects. The students have designed the posters for the show, and printed and framed their own work.

Each student has carefully crafted a small collection of visual imagery to present as part of the show, which may be an interconnected series or a diverse range of imagery.

As a part of a larger discussion and understanding the students are keenly interested in knowing what you have to say, please feel free to leave comments in the book provided.

We hope you enjoy the exhibition.

Chyanne Dunham

Biography

Chyanne Dunham grew up in Saint John, New Brunswick. She has always had a taste for the arts, her Grandfather was an artist himself. She always succeeded in her art classes in high school but never knew how to make it a career for herself. It took two years after graduating for her to discover her passion for Photography, and from there she found NBCCD.

Chyanne is now in her final year of Photography at NBCCD. She is working her way into being in galleries, and perfecting her art. Chyanne is apart of The East Coast Artist Collective which is an artist run group based out of Fredericton, NB. So far Chyanne has had her work in four galleries and has had her prints sold.

Artist Statement

In The Open is a series inspired by nature and the human form, the whole idea of being connected to the wild. Wearing or posing with the animal parts I wanted viewers to get a sense of strength and peacefulness between the two.  Having people be completely bare, in the open, gives a sense of vulnerability, like the animals have.

Lesley Dunn

Biography

Lesley is currently living in New Brunswick, a province that captivates her.  She likes to describe her life as “ being cast in Jell-O”- fluid and definitely not cast in stone. A student of photography at the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design, Lesley has a previous diploma in Fashion Design, specializing in designing clothing for persons in wheelchairs.

She enjoys spending time taking photographs with her husband Gary, who is also a student at NBCCD. Her two sons, who both live out of province, are also both very interested in photography, and this connection has created wonderful discussions.

Lesley enjoys learning and began following her passion for learning at 40 years old and continues to be inspired to learn and challenge her creativity.

Photography and its many possibilities continues to excite and drive her creatively, either using a digital or analogue camera, working in Photoshop on the computer or making magic in the darkroom. Lesley’s next major challenge is the world of motion pictures where she plans to learn how to make her own videos.

Artist Statement

I am a student of photography. My work is a journey of learning new techniques and using new equipment while looking at the world around me to see the unexpected.

Some of these adventures are learning about double exposures, composition, light, and depth of field. Through my journey I have become intrigued with the endless possibilities that I could create with my camera. I now see reflections and light in unexpected places and have gained awareness of my interaction with the space being photographed and my own place within it.

Drew Gilbert (instructor)

Biography

Drew Gilbert is an instructor and the Studio Head of the Photography Diploma Program at the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design. Drew has been and photographer for over 20 years, starting with High School Yearbook, Journalism in University and as an Archaeologist and Scientific Photographer in his Masters and other careers. Drew’s favourite form of photography is done using pinhole cameras and camera obscuras to create simple basic images with handmade devices.

Artist Statement

This is an image that I created using a pinhole camera that I designed and built about 15 years ago.  The image presented here was created an effort to spark a dialogue with the viewer about the nature of photography and the photographic experience. The pinhole photograph is the self-portrait of me that was taken from the same perspective as the Image that is hung on the wall. While it is an image of me that was taken in the past, it also stands as a reflection of the present moment and the viewer is simultaneously able to be in both moments.

Krista King

Biography

Krista King is an aspiring photographer from Saint John New Brunswick. She is currently studying her Second year of the photography Program at the New Brunswick College of Craft And Design located in Fredericton, New Brunswick. Driven by her passion for photography, she is ambitious and veraciously motivated to expand her knowledge in the field.

Friends and family have long considered her an artistic/creative person; expressing herself artistically has always been her comfort zone and strong suit. However, photography became her preferred method of expressing her creative side and personal passions. For Krista, it has always been more than just being creative. Her inspiration is drawn from an innate passion for nature and organic atmospheres. The love Krista has for the natural world intuitively drew her towards capturing it in an artistic fashion.

Artist Statement

A Moment of Clarity is a series that developed from multiple failed attempts at a style of photography that my busy schedule could not uphold. My hopes to capture my sightings of wildlife through photography left me dissatisfied and discouraged, but not defeated. Sitting on a stump in the middle of a seemingly lifeless forest, I was pushed near the limit of my patience. Just as it seemed inspiration had become clouded beyond rescue, all at once the clouds broke into what I would come to appropriately title “A Moment of Clarity.”

For me this series portrays my own personal immersion in the landscape without necessarily being the focal point of the composition. However, my own presence in the image is also meant to intrigue the observer, who makes deeper inquiries following their initial impressions. In other words, my perspective becomes secondary to that of the observer’s, who projects their own perspective through my presence in the landscape as though I were a medium. These images may provoke questions from viewers that I cannot answer. The answer is in what emotions the viewer experiences; therefore there is no actual story within the series, rather than an emotion.

Margie Martin

Biography

Margaret (Margie) Martin was born and raised in New Brunswick, Canada and is currently living in Fredericton N.B., where she is attending the New Brunswick College of Craft & Design (NBCCD) and is in her last year of a two-year photography program.

Margie’s love for photography started when she was in her certificate year for Foundation Visual Arts in NBCCD, where she had a six week crash course in Photography and wanted to do more. Now she is photographing bands, self portraits, and ghosting effect as her main photography style, but is not limited to just those things.

Margie was in a group gallery show with her work Left Brain, Right Brain in the Fredericton Playhouse Gallery with her classmates and the Aboriginal Visual Arts students. She is hoping to have a solo exhibition in the future and wants to travel the globe and document her experiences.

Artist Statement

This body of work is focused on self portraiture and the creation of narrative through the use of characters and scenery. Each photograph is an unique expression of the character such as the female Mad Hatter, the 80’s grunge chic, and the dark circus ring leader. I would like the viewer to engage with these images in their own way and bring their own story to the narrative I have created.

Lily is based on a fictitious character that I created to embody the 80’s grunge era. Madame Hatter is a gender swapped version of the iconic Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland. With brainstorming and doing some character sketches, I made my own version of a female Mad Hatter from a slightly darker Wonderland. Freak Show is a character that I created; she is a ring leader for a dark circus of some sort.

Dale Murray

Biography

Born and raised in Fredericton, N.B., Dale Murray now lives on Grand Lake, N.B with his wife Ann. He is retired from the security industry, and is currently a part-time student at the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design in Fredericton, N.B. Dale began photographing 37 years ago, when his mother bought him a Kodak Disc6000 camera for Christmas in 1979. He acquired his first 35mm camera in 1986, and has been actively taking photographs ever since. He has shot many photographs of motorcycle racing, music festivals and outdoor scenery as part of the images he has taken over the years. Returning to college and studying Digital Output has allowed him to take his photography to new levels, and has opened up a new avenue for him to expand his creative side into the future. He enjoys woodworking and is currently building a 17-foot sailboat.

Artist Statement

Recently, I was asked if an abstract photograph that I shot was accidental or intentional. I replied that I created the image intentionally and processed it on the computer to achieve the visual result that I had envisioned. This process of creating images is both exciting and fulfilling. Since I retired in 2015, I have been rekindling my creativity and concentrating on abstract and architectural photography. I’m an intrepid traveller and use these opportunities to photograph what I see. Life is an opportunity to continue learning and developing my creativity.

Lorne Power

Biography

Lorne Power is an emerging photographic artist based in Saint John. He grew up here, studied creative writing, and lived in Toronto for a decade before retuning in 2007.

He has published poetry in Canadian Literary Magazines, and had his first solo exhibitions of photographs, WHAT’S AT STAKE IS THE CONNECTION, this past Fall in Fredericton — where he was also a member of the group exhibition, Earth and Light.

Lorne is a lover of great coffee and fine ales. His favourite TV show is Louie, and he loves the music of Frank Ocean and Silver Jews. To check out more of his work, he can found on Instagram as portlower.

Artist Statement

I see my photographs as being in the process of constructing a visual language, as forming a grammar of under-noticed places, of people and how they live there. I want to get to know what I see, and communicate how I see it. Every camera click has a certain amount of doubt — a necessary tension, I think, that the photo has to go through in order to get made.

Kelsey Schroeder

Biography

Kelsey Schroeder is a fashion, portrait, and lifestyle photographer from Fredericton, New Brunswick.

Kelsey’s photographic style is reflected from her main inspirations of fashion, the West Coast, vintage film, and minimalism. Kelsey is based in Fredericton but has done work in Toronto, Florida, and Los Angeles. Her education comes from the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design and she will be graduating in 2017 with a Diploma of Photography.

Currently, she is working for Wear Your Label as the Head Photographer but also does freelance work. When she isn’t working, she is planning shoots, blogging, and instagramming. After five years of dabbling in all types of photography, Kelsey’s passions lie in fashion and portrait work. Current projects combine fashion, girls, colour, and golden light.

Kelsey loves travelling, film photography, hot chocolate, her dog, and she owns way too many pairs of boyfriend jeans.

Artist Statement

Earlier this month, I travelled to Toronto to create a series of work for Free People Canada. Free People is a clothing and lifestyle company that represents women who live free through not just fashion, but also art, music, and travel. The work is a reflective combination of the brand’s bohemian lifestyle and my photographic style. My style draws from my inspirations of fashion, the West Coast, vintage film, and minimalism. The images presented here are a combination of digital photographs and 35mm analog film.

This series is my favourite shoot to date and is the first real expression of my creative style. The 35mm film photographs are imperfect, flawed, and dirty. I want to show the contrast of analog and digital photographs and I believe that every piece of dust and noticeable flaw makes the images their own and creatively personal to myself, the artist. In early December, my hard work paid off and Free People published the first photo in this work. It reached over 35,000 people and is one of my biggest accomplishments to date.

Alix Surette

Biography

Alix Surette is a fashion and portrait photographer raised in Miramichi, New Brunswick, now living in Fredericton. She graduated with a Bachelor of Applied Arts from the University of New Brunswick in 2016. Alix is currently attending the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design to finish her last year of the Photography Diploma program.

Artist’s Statement

My latest series, Girls’ Night Out, was inspired by brightly coloured makeup and geometric shapes. I wanted the looks to be more vibrant and bold than most people wear in their day-to-day lives, but still able to dress up for a night out with the girls. I shot this series in the studio with a black backdrop to give it a high fashion, magazine editorial look.

Michaella Vickers

Biography

Michaella Vickers is an artist and photographer born and raised in Blackville New Brunswick. She currently resides in Fredericton, New Brunswick. Mainly working in photography, she experiments on creating compositions with the human form as the main subject.  Her photographic style is inspired by films, literature, fashion, art history and her own experiences.

Artist Statement

These series of images were created based on Lucien Carr’s New Vision thesis:

  • Naked self-expression is the seed of creativity
  • The artist’s consciousness is expanded by the derangement of the senses
  • Art eludes conventional morality

Originally intended to help the Beats’ creative rebellion, I was inspired to use this thesis in my creative process.