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On
Having A Human Face
People
always ask me why I photograph my friends. The question falls
into the same realm as a question like, "Why do you wake
up every morning?"
Photographing my friends is a natural part of my everyday
existence, just like eating or breathing. It is almost an
instinctual response. My camera is the machine that creates my physical memory, the window through
which I see "real life." My brain can twist things
around, exaggerate emotions or fade a moment out of existence. But the camera allows me to
see things exactly as they were, recalling sounds, smell or
conversations.
If you
asked me what I learned in college, I wouldn't remember how
to solve a math problem. But I would remember that I learned
about being on my own and about forming a family with the
people I'm surrounded by. My work is about these relationships
and the ever-changing positions that people can have in one
person's life. I am not absent from these photos. My subjects
stare back at me, my closeness to them varies. These images
become as much about my relationships with these people as
about them as individuals. Their experiences are as much a
part of me as my own experiences. Together, we have survived
rape, rehab, divorce, and alcoholic fathers. We have all had
our personal victories and reveled in the moments where we
come out okay. My friend Jeffrey once said that there are
"those moments when you realize that everyone around
you, including yourself, is a hypocrite, but for some strange
reason, there is hope." I found this statement overwhelmingly
true, as we all wander around in our awkward age of early
20s,
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contradicting
ourselves and struggling to find
answers when sometimes we are not even sure of the questions.
I see this same battle in my photographs. At times, these images
represent a moment of clarity. Other times, things aren't so
clear, thoughts become cloudy, our vision is blurred and out
of focus, just as we don't always know what to think, what to
say, or where we are going.
The issues
that plague our generation become real and individual through
these people. The pop culture images that are thrown around
about our generation are not always accurate and can result in careless
stereotypes. I want to portray my friends, my generation,
in my own visual language as something real, in raw moments of vulnerability and strength.
I see
this work not as a project with a beginning and an end, but
as a life-long endeavor. It will never be complete. The faces
may change, the scenery will change. But my memory of these
real life moments will always remain the same.
-Andrea
Bauer
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Andrea
Bauer
Andrea Bauer graduated in May 1999 from the University of
Iowa with bachelor's degrees in art and journalism. Andrea
was a photographer for Iowa City's morning newspaper, The
Daily Iowan. A recipient of the Fuji-Film Scholarship Award,
she participated in the NPPA Women in Photojournalism Conference
in Albany, N.Y. Andrea currently lives in Glenwood, Ill.,
where she continues to do freelance photography and independent
projects.
Drop Andrea a line at RNBauer@webtv.net.
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