self reflection // sonya kozlova

This photo of mine may not be the absolute strongest of my entire body of work, but I chose to post it because I felt it represented the new direction I have been inspired to take with my photography after these three weeks at MIAD. I came into this experience completely self taught, and always relying on the vintage filters and routine color manipulation I had been using on all my photos. I still to this day have the urge to manipulate my photos in this way, maybe because of my strong attraction to that antique, vintage, just-opened-up-your-grandmas-treasure-box-and-found-this-photo kind of image.What I've come to learn is that I've been completely distracting the viewer from what I was actually photographing. The "look" of my photos were, and maybe still a bit are, more attractive than their content. I am definitely just beginning to step away from this aesthetic addiction of mine, but these three weeks at MIAD have surely helped me jumpstart that for me. The photo above portrays my new sense of framing, minimal digital manipulation, and a clear focus on the subject. As I take photos from now on, I'm committed and looking forward to the results of my photographs with my new perspective that I have taken away from these three weeks.

july29 // sonya kozlova

july28 // sonya kozlova

july27 // sonya kozlova

july 26 // sonya kozlova

Emulation - Sonya Kozlova

Above is an image of and produced by Duane Michals. He is an American photographer known throughout the 60's to 80's for his unique photographs unlike any others at his time. What drew my attention in all of Michals' photography were his imaginative, self-reflecting, and layered images. He used his photography to evaluate himself, his dreams, and his desires. In my photo, I emulated Michals' style by layering composites of myself as he did in his own picture, and using self-exploration by layering my two images that compare and contrast myself as a photographer and myself as a subject of my photography. I apologize for the scale of Michals' photographs in my presentation in class, so if you are interested, you can find some more of his works in this websites that are easier to see: http://www.pacemacgill.com/duanemichals.html

july25 // sonya kozlova

july24 // sonya kozlova

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today one of my shots showed up on the urban outfitters blog.... 

http://blog.urbanoutfitters.com/blog/flickr_favorites_july_23

july23 // sonya kozlova

july22 // sonya kozlova

july21 // sonya kozlova

july20 // sonya kozlova

this is me trying to squeeze out of my vintage filter funk

july 19 // sonya kozlova

july 18 // sonya kozlova

july 17 // sonya kozlova

july 16 // sonya kozlova

july 15 // sonya kozlova

july 14 // sonya kozlova

july13 // sonya kozlova