Liam Butler-Schafer

A. Mount Soledad National Veterans Memorial, San Diego, CA. August, 2022

B. Chinatown 01, Manhattan, NY. April, 2022

C. Koreatown, Los Angeles, CA. November, 2020

D. Venice Beach Boardwalk, CA. January, 2022

E. Chinatown 02, Manhattan, NY. October, 2022

F. Coney Island, Brooklyn, NY. June, 2021

G. Santa Monica Pier, Los Angeles, CA. January, 2022

G. Santa Monica Pier, Los Angeles, CA. January, 2022

”The point of the game is to know, love, and serve sight, and the basic strategic problem is to find a new kind of clarity within the prickly thickets of unordered sensation.”

John Szarkowski on Lee Friedlander

My work is a description of how I see the world around me. These photos are the most current representation of my street photography depicting its evolution over the past six years. I initially shot with a digital camera but switched to 35mm film once I understood how it allowed me slow down and be more decisive about what I photograh. I pay close attention to the formal elements around me like light and color, in addition to the physical subject matter. I take the photo when I feel there are enough different elements available that it becomes possible to make a compelling image. The built environment is a very important part of my street photography because it is what we exist within, I see it as a stage that life flows through. In most cases the human presence activates the space and provides what is necessary to qualify the rest of the visual elements that inform my composure. The street is a cacophony of activity and information, and I am compelled to make sense of it, and to include whatever I need to make the most intriguing and alluring photograph.

My art is fully intertwined within my life (they are mirrors of one another); and, as life moves fluidly like a stream of running water, my art has to as well. If occasion calls where it needs to be listed under the specific titling of a project, I can cluster together these specific visualizations. But, my art and my project are always open to further expansion and transitioning.

And so, at the moment, I am exploring the body- my body or bodies I am familiar with- and its interactions with nature/natural elements as a form of intimate healing and transformation. A transformative process drawing inwards. This inwardness has drawn me into a solitude that draws in the whole universe. I seek this solitude and I only have this solitude. To speak precisely of my photography: Most of the time I only have myself as a model, so I use myself; I trust and know myself enough to visualize my inward feelings; I go to nature where I feel energy, freedom, power, and harmony in my reality; I disappear within my surroundings to try to lose my self-importance or to perform, ritualistically and privately; I become a shadow through-in and through-out; me, or a small selection of someone or something else.

This is my narrative between the body and the land. My narrative between the body and memory. My narrative of inwardness, solitude, and transformation. I give this story to the Earth.

86 Aldi Victoria

Aldi Victoria is a Mexican American artist focused on editorial photography and design. She has been working on a long-term project creating magazines that revolve around different subcategories of alternative fashion. Her inspiration comes from Japanese fashion magazines, Spanish culture, the macabre, and classic literature.