Photography Student Showcase
Introduction
Villa Maria College BFA Thesis Exhibitions represent two semesters of research and experimentation and the culmination of years of higher education. Rather than a collection of interesting images that have no connection other than through their author, these exhibitions are examples of well thought out concepts that have been developed into a cohesive body of work.
Laura Snyder
Professor, Photography
Hayley Bigham, '24
There is a contrast between how we show emotions and how we feel them. We may express one emotion while feeling another, disguising what is truly inside.
I illustrate this contrast through double exposure film photography, where a single negative is exposed to multiple images that end up overlaid in the resultant photograph. This process can be difficult, especially with the large format film and viewfinder camera used for this series.
My process requires models, which can be difficult to get and involves directing the model on how to pose so the photo turns out how you want. For studio lighting, you must ensure that the model is directly next to or in front of the lighting to have it show up in the film itself.
Every time that I wanted to get the model’s face more clearly, I would put the light in front of them, but on the ground facing upward towards them. In some photos, I would put a light source next to them to get a good angle of their face. This reason for this process is because this is the only way you can get the model to show up on the film and this is how the film works. When doing this process with film, it is a one-shot opportunity to get the right exposure, the correct lighting the correct poses. The one-shot process adds to my work because that moment when the model makes that certain face or has that type of body language, you must capture that moment, or else you might not see that again in the same way.
