Artist Access Grant

In my past work people were rarely included in the compositions, I almost never made portraits. This is the most marked, and I believe the most important outcome for this project. I hope to develop my ability to create formal portraits and work with living subjects. This will be done by improving my ability to communicate effectively with a subject to create a meaningful and relevant representation of them. Highly related to this, I hope to create personal and working relationships with subjects. With the intended goal that these relationships form unique connections that lead to the creation of future work for this lifelong project. Beyond this personal goal, I hope to create a body of work that Minnesotan's can relate to and find value in; a series of photographs that feel honest and true to place. And, in the future, serve as an excerpt of time and place. Measuring the success of this project will be in a qualitative analysis of the experience I had in creating it. I have learned that value usually reveals itself in the process of finding it. I don't think this project will be different. Beyond these revelatory ideas that will present themselves in the creation of this work, that will ideally lead to the creation of more interesting work; the quality and number of relationships made through pursuing and completing this project will serve as a marker of success. Whether they are with those whom I photograph, within the artist community of Minnesota, or those interested in the work, success will be a function of this project's, and my, ability to form long lasting relationships. And ultimately, I hope others see value in the work I have created, that feeling would be indescribable.