COLLEEN CHAN

Oct 6

Written By Magpie

I was born with a hereditary eye condition that required surgery when I was two years old. I was determined to see the world differently, and used a handheld monocular in fourth grade to imagine I was a photographer in my classroom.

At age eight, I was given my first 35mm Kodak camera. Then, at age 16, I saved up enough money to purchase my first digital camera. In 2019, I proclaimed my major would be in photography, still as a visually impaired person.

In high school, I studied Salvador Dali and surrealism. A memorable piece that I grew fond of was “Persistence of Time” and “Geopolitical Child Watching the Birth of a New Man.” I knew there was a deeper meaning within the juxtaposed imagery. Time was needed for me to grasp how great those meanings were. In community college, I furthered my education with Cindy Sherman and Andy Warhol. Like Sherman’s Untitled Film Stills and Warhol’s Screen Tests, I was fixated on solely using myself as a character model as Sherman did and creating elaborate stories for one single image. I produced exactly as I saw it in my mind.

Fast forward to Minneapolis College of Art and Design, where I discovered the Larry Sultan and Mike Mandel collection of found photographs entitled Evidence. This book inspired me to think about how photography is not always what it seems. The photographs in Evidence are all anonymous, and there is no context to tell us who the people are or what is happening. This lack of information compels the viewer to question the veracity of the photos and to wonder about the stories behind them.

The series “Curious Behavior (2001)” continues in the spirit of Sultan and Mandel. The photographs I work with are usually vernacular or amateur in nature, and I’m interested in the way they can be both personal and universal. By juxtaposing these images and creating a new narrative from them, I hope to explore the complex relationship between photography as it relates to truth and fiction alike.