24 Photos on Alcatraz Island

camera: iPhone 5
processing: Lightroom 4

Selections from CCA's 2013 Graduate Open Studios

This past Sunday I was at CCA’s Graduate Open Studios and I got a chance to wander around and take some photos (disclaimer: I work there!). It can be an odd thing, having complete strangers roaming around a personal space, especially a space like a studio. Maybe, even more odd, is to be the one who is doing the roaming. The intimacy can be overwhelming, exploring someone’s creations in the arena that those creations were made, or conceived, or contemplated by their maker. For me, that intimacy is furthered by viewing photographs of that experience, those that capture the “ah” moment, which is to say the point where the artist's intentions fuse with the spectator's understanding. Below are selections that I think best depict that moment. Some of these photographs are of finished art works; others are of works in progress and some are about the studio itself. In all cases, they are unsolicited collaborations with the artists—my aesthetic stamped on someone else’s vision.  

artists from top to bottom: 1-2 Jamiee Emerick; 3 Ji Eun Chun; 4 Leora Lutz; 5-6 Brittany Watkins; 7-8 Lindsey Lyons; 9 Alex Maldonado; 10 Alex Bargas; 11-12 Eric Dyer; 15 Alex Maldonado; 14 Christina Conklin; 15-17 Amanda Simons; 18 Beatrice Hunt; 19 Manuel Ange; 20 Lana Dandan; 21 David Ohlson; 22 Neil Rivas; 23 Annie Hagar; 24 Ansley West; 25 Benjamin Blanco; 26 Sarah Jones; 27-29 Ricardo Alzati; 30 Laura Kingsley; 31 Diedrick Bracens; 32 Dit-Cilinn Sundqvist; 33 Edward Setina; 34 Heidi Lubin; 34 Helga Hizer; 36-39 Jose Iniguez; 40 Adam Henderson