NYU Photography & Imaging - Senior Catalog 2021

2021 BFA Catalog

Tisch School of the Arts

The Department of Photography and Imaging

New York University

The Department of Photography and Imaging

New York University

2021

Tisch School of the Arts

BFA Catalog

The Department of Photography and Imaging

New York University

2021

Tisch School of the Arts

BFA Catalog

Instagram: @tischphoto Twitter: @tischphoto www.vimeo.com/tischphoto www.facebook.com/tischphoto www.tisch.nyu.edu/photo

The Department of Photography and Imaging in the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University is a four-year B.F.A. program centered on the making and understanding of images, offering students both the intensive focus of an arts curriculum while demanding a broad grounding in the liberal arts.

Our diverse department embraces multiple perspectives and approaches which encourages critical engagement both in and outside of the classroom. Our majors explore photo-based imagery as personal and cultural expression while working in virtually all modes of analog and digital photo-based image making, multimedia, new media, immersive, and post-photographic 3D simulation technologies.

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Andres Guerrero Rou Leonard Ayesha Kazim Ju Yeon Lee Cydney Blitzer Gabriela Aleksova Chloe Dugourd Grace Hinchen Zoe Shields Natasha Fradkin Katina Pennington Matt Bernstein Ellie Bates Muhammet Gencoglu Brian Uchiyama Meghan Marshall Roxanne Dierking Shelby Kraut Alina Patrick Clara Jeanne Reed Kavya Krishna Steve Wang Shina Peng Alyssa Dickson Beste Zan Noa Eden Benson Wu Melody Ball Lauren Stone Elisa Lopez Pema Dolkar

Huellas En la Frontera

(Footprints on the Border)

ANDRES GUERRERO

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The Mexico-United States border will always trace a story for those who attempt to cross it on foot.

Reasons such as violence, insecurity, poverty, and family reunification drive people to make the arduous journey from their home country to the United States. These motives remain important drivers of migration from Latin America. Fierce debates in the United States about migrant flows not only emphasize a historically and politically complex account but also the ongoing humanitarian crisis along the dividing line.

The compositions contemplate the intricacy of the social crisis. They identify the landscape, as well as depict the efforts by the U.S. Border Patrol Agents to secure the Rio Grande Valley using

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fences and border artifacts; in particular, old tires used for “dragging,” which is a technique that involves footprint tracking to determine a timeline of crossings.

Huellas en La Frontera attempts to reference culture, history and lived experience. To amplify these references, the compositions include selfportraits where I occupy the landscape wearing my U.S. Air Force uniform to evaluate my experience in the United States as someone who crossed the border in Brownsville, TX, as a child, and served in the military.

it’s not a photograph

the idea of photography as an art form has never really appealed to me. i am not stimulated by good photographs. i am stimulated by the people in them, by what they are wearing, by the feelings that run through my mind right before i hit the shutter. that moment captured through the lens will never happen again. a photograph can create a narrative controlled by the photographer: it can bring the most common person into all newly elevated class, or simply take the crown away from the king and turn him into just another pawn.

ROU LEONARD

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This Home Of Ours

When we think of what defines a home, the ideas that initially come to mind often times speak to a specific geographical location or physical structure. Yet for many who are nomads, accustomed to the constant state of transition that involves moving from one territory to the next, we ask ourselves: what binds a person to a place? Is it comfort? Familiarity? Or a grounded sense of faith in one’s community?

This Home of Ours acts as a contemporary time capsule of the Bo Kaap neighbourhood’s rich history within Cape Town, South Africa.

At a time when both an influx of foreign residents and the COVID-19 pandemic are endangering the livelihood of many residents, this series seeks to provide a platform of visibility that amplifies the voices of community members and chronicles their experiences for generations to come. This work pays homage to the individuals that raised me for the first six years of my life. Upon returning as a young adult, I captured these individuals through familial, intimate portraits in which I hope viewers will see themselves and their family members reflected in this work. In depicting Bo Kaap as more than its mesmerizingly colorful facade and its monetary value as a point of prime real estate, I aim to elucidate outsiders to its distinct character and its residents’ strong sense of unity. The textures and colors presented play an integral role in illustrating the energy and resilience of the community. Cracked paint and multicolored storefronts shout: “We are here” in the same way that carefully placed “Save Our Heritage” posters draw attention to the community’s fight to preserve the essence of the neighbourhood.

Through individual and group portraits, and depictions of the varied landscape, this work aims to showcase how the culture of Bo Kaap has evolved at the intersection of race, religion, and identity, while attempting to maintain its core spirit and customs.

AYESHA KAZIM

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Lost Village, Forgotten People

JU YEON LEE

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“Why are there so many gravesites in Jeju Island?” This is the question that inspired me to get started with this project. While looking for the answer, I faced the history of the Jeju 4.3 Uprising, in which nearly 30,000 people were killed in 1947. It is this incident that forms the central focus of my project, through which I will investigate the uprising’s remnants and the aftermath on Jeju Island. The April Jeju Uprising was an incident that caused many civilians to be sacrificed due to the ideological conflict in the Korean Peninsula. Korea gained independence from Japan on August 15, 1945. After the liberation, the Korean Peninsula was divided between two major powers, with the Soviet Union in the north and the U.S. occupying the south. The Jeju Uprising all began when a boy was trampled by the horse of a mounted police officer while people were marching at the ceremony to commemorate the Independence Movement on March 1, 1947. The crowd was outraged as the police officer ignored the injured boy. Some people in the crowd began to throw stones at the police. In the end, six civilians were killed and injured.

People who were at the march were arrested. Those who opposed the police actions requested an apology, but the government designated the protests as a communist uprising, and indeed the communist aligned members of the South Korea Labor Party (SKLP) did try to take advantage of the situation by instigating further revolutionary actions. After this, the government announced that 5 kilometers inland from the coast would be considered “hostile territory,” and anyone entering beyond that point would be killed.

I decided to visit the memorial stones’ sites spread throughout the island.

Through this project, I would like to give the victims a voice, create interest in visiting historic sites, and commemorate the history of Jeju 4.3.

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Adoptee The reality that adoptees live is shaped by very specific phenomena that they experience within themselves, share with the people they love the most and are subjected to through judgments made by strangers. It is an experience often characterized by confusion, introspection, alienation, and a profound longing for a better understanding of the self, of the past, and of one’s place in the world. I want my work to help people better comprehend the complexity of the adoptee experience through the lens that is my life.

CYDNEY BLITZER

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ECHOES Ever since I first started learning about the human brain, I have been fascinated by memory. We have the capacity to remember countless movements, facts, concepts, sounds, scents, images, sensations.

Our brain stores the basics of survival along with the most useless details of our everyday lives in the form of electrical signals that can be accessed and brought back to life long after they were thought forgotten. And yet, we cannot trust our brain to be objective.

This series explores the way in which we remember people.

I am sure that you, too, have noticed that once someone leaves your life, their face starts evaporating from your mind. If it wasn’t for the pictures that remind you of what that person looked like, you would soon cease to know.

What you wouldn’t forget, though, is the mark that they left on you. You would remember their laugh, or their gait, or their habits.

You would almost feel the warmth of their touch, the weight of their words, the happiness, the pain, or the confusion that they brought you when they were still around. The following photographs aim to emulate this emotional way of remembering, the way we reconstruct a person’s presence much better than we can reconstruct their face.

GABRIELA ALEKSOVA

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WATER

MEMORY

Water is known to hold three states: solid, liquid and gas, but there is a theory that water may be even more complex than we think. Dr. Masaru Emoto studied the theory that water has a fourth phase in which it can hold forms of memory and emotion inside of it, changing its shape at the molecular level.

This project is showing the emotions and memories I hold in myself and intertwining it with elements of water. I find myself very emotionally attached to water as an element that has calmed me during some of my most challenging times, whether it is walking along the beach, relaxing in baths, or listening to waves as I fall asleep. Conversely, I also have a fear of being in the middle of open water. This high and low contrast of feelings that I have attached to water are emotions that I also feel in my day-to-day life. I am intrigued by this theory of water holding emotions and memory in a way that it may contain many of my own emotions inside of it. Although this particular theory may be considered a “pseudo-science”, there is scientific evidence that water is proven to be a stress reliever and helps to calm people. Having lived near water my whole life, I have had specific experiences where even just looking at the water has completely relieved my anxiety. This series is emphasizing the emotions that water can hold and does hold for me.

CHLOE DUGOURD

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It is hard to pinpoint a word that fully captures the essence of the Summer of 2020. From the panic of COVID-19, to the heated and divisive political climate; from economic uncertainty to the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement to the debate over the efficacy and distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine, 2020 is a year that will be known for its devastation and remembered for its division. Surf Montauk provides a glimpse of what life was like in Montauk, NY during that summer, taking into account the widespread repercussions of COVID-19 and the community support for the Black Lives Matter movement. It also highlights the unique surf culture that lies at the heart of Montauk. The importance of surfing, the significance of the ocean, and the passion for the beach become the subtext in each of these photographs. Surf Montauk strives to provide an insight into the value of surfing through the inclusion of six interviews

GRACE HINCHEN

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with some of the leaders of the world’s leading surf organizations and the true locals of the town. These discussions allow the interviewees to reminisce about the differences between Montauk “back in the day” and compare those memories to what it is now. Read interviews with Black Girls Surf founder, Rhonda Harper; East Coast leader of A Walk On Water, Walt Lindveld; life-time lifeguard and member of the International Surf Therapy Organization, Bob Miller; Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Joan Madden and her husband, Montauk legend, Joel Pheister; front line worker and Montauk native, Dave Davies; and renowned surf photographer, Joni Sternbach. Surf Montauk is the culmination of five months’ work spanning from May to September of 2020, during a time that will forever be in the history books and when surfing served a purpose much larger than itself.

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Pixel Play

Pixel Play is an exploration of the way shape, line, and palettes of color function in the digital realm. The series is built on a foundation of abstract photographs manipulated with graphic elements. Created with a digital camera, processed with software, and experienced through a screen, the work prompts the viewer to consider the influence of technology on modern image capturing and abstraction.

ZOE SHIELDS

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STUDENT NAME HERE

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MODERN ANTIQUITY

NATASHA FRADKIN

Past and present, antiquity and modernity. This project pulls from photographic history to create new work that remains connected and inspired by its past in the modern day. I challenge the idea of a single self, a single existence, and a single being though these images, while also questioning what traditional modernity and femininity is. I bring in traditional analog photography to add layers to the once male-run medium, as well as utilizing the same medium as a nod to photographic history, and a duality of self; what a person looks like on the outside does not mean that is what they are on the inside. This work was made to not only reflect me—my dualities, my questions, and my perspectives—but also to cause introspection within its viewer.

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WOODLAWN Communities aren’t stagnant; they are constantly changing because of the differences in the values of the residents. These changes create a new identity. Located on the South side of Chicago, Illinois, Woodlawn was once considered a “community of last resort” because of the years of disinvestment.

However, the residents of the neighborhood collectively worked together to make Woodlawn more visually appealing. What was once a neighborhood consumed by abandoned lots is now one full of gardens that create a space for social cohesion and renovated buildings. I was fortunate enough to have arrived in this area when it had already undergone a lot of these changes. However, the spaces that remain abandoned and the buildings that still stand are rich in character and illustrate what the neighborhood was like in the past.

KATINA PENNINGTON

Woodlawn is a project that explores my perspective of the neighborhood that I have called home for fifteen years. While focusing on and appreciating all of the different characteristics of my community, the textures and colors of the buildings and the urban greenery became relevant. The contrasting textures like wood and brick are visually striking and bring importance to the structural impact buildings have for their inhabitants, while the use of urban greenery creates a sense of inclusivity and nurture in a neighborhood. Each area illustrates the remnants of the inhabitants of the community and those that have lived there before. By exploring these different spaces, I aim to bring attention to the way greenery elevates urban neighborhoods and how the colors and textures of buildings affect the curb appeal of a residential area.

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MATT BERNSTEIN

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For this project, I have taken graphic design elements, painted them onto decadephotographed, and styled the images imitating iconic fashion photography from the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, ’90s and 2000s.

Today, there is an admiration for the past in terms of clothing, art and aesthetics that is undeniable.

Magazines are imitating old graphics, designers are taking steps back and paying homage to original designs, being created to make an instagram post look “retro.”

When you walk down the street, most twenty-somethings are wearing their parents’ clothes or shopping at a thrift store. This obsession with the past is the basis of this project, combining graphic design, fashion and photography into one

ELLIE BATES

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Once We Meet Again

When you hear “New York City,” Rockaway is not the first part of the city that comes to your mind. However, when you take the A train all the way down to the end of Queens, you will come to a place where the environment means a lot to the people. The first time I visited the Rockaways, it felt like a place that you would see when you get off one of the NYC subway stops. It feels like a place that shouldn’t be part of NYC but recognized as its own enclave. People from very different backgrounds call this place their home. While it is a few stops away from Manhattan it exists in its own timeline and has different rules for the way people engage with each other.

Living in very close proximity, people from different religions, nationalities, cultures, and ethnicities create an environment where you can feel the culture change just going from one house next to the other. While people are trying to go on with their lives, the way they shape their environment reflects on people’s understanding of themselves and the people around them.

With this project, my objective is to capture how an environment has an important impact on how people live and adapt to it. If you walk from one end of the island to the other, you will see how people try to overcome their differences and coexist in an environment that is a clash between nature and man, which makes the Rockaways special. That is why the Rockaway community chooses to live in this place. It is neighborhood where people are willing to accept the struggles of its nature while cherishing the surroundings caused by the differences of its people.

MUHAMMET GENCOGLU

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!"#$%&!'#()&'* BRIAN UCHIYAMA

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The Sociolinguistics of Rendering Women Edible Objects

Language, among other things, works to keep women in subordinate roles

to their peers. Caitlin Hines in her essay “Rebaking The Pie” maps out how

phrases to be covert. These images work to make this comparison and rendering ever apparent and present to the viewer. By placing a woman in

certain linguistic practices. By photographing women as literal desserts I work to subtly degrade women as human beings to light.

MEGHAN MARSHALL

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I can hear my heart beat.

Panic attacks are very common; many people will have at least 1 in their life. But these attacks can also become more frequent for others. Due to the lack of awareness and understanding when people get them for the

Mental illness is a pressing issue for many people. Though our world is slowly becoming more aware and understanding of it, some groups still consider it shameful and sweep it under the rug to be ignored or suppressed—treating it far more lightly than it should be, inevitably making it worse.

There is a broad spectrum of mental illnesses that take on unique forms in everyone who has them.

As someone who struggles with depression and an anxiety disorder, I wanted to give focus to how those manifest in me.

Though I’ve dealt with these for major panic attack my senior year of high school when I went through a traumatic event. After that they became more chronic and daily.

they are having a heart attack since your heart beats so vigorously while it’s happening.

For me, they can be brought on by many different things, work, relationships, insecurities, medications, events, too much caffeine, etc. They can also appear different for me given my setting or worry. These images are self-portraits taken during my panic attacks over the past few months.

My aim is to show a vulnerable moment most people would not see, give a glimpse as to what it is like, as well as create to see what it looks like outside of my head when I’m in these states.

ROXANNE DIERKING

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Rapture

SHELBY KRAUT

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UKRAINE: LOSING HOMELAND weeks, the story was quickly overshadowed by other news. It wasn't until

Ukraine: Losing Homeland

presented here include soldiers, women who volunteer to drive ambulances

ALINA PATRICK

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metamorphoses Metamorphoses

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Metamorphoses

CLARA JEANNE REED

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a c i r e m A n I n w o T A

KAVYA KRISHNA

Although the South Asian population in the United States is relatively new, it has simultaneously evolved to be one of the most affluent minorities, with a substantial population settled in the suburbs. In this project, using the folklore of New England as a quaint and ideal landscape, although incessantly represented by whiteness, I attempt to reinterpret traditional imagery of suburbia by inserting South Asian personalities, a reality grounded in my own experience growing up. Acknowledging the birth and construction of the suburbs and subsequent white flight from cities to suburbs, this project also explores the rapidly changing demographics of suburbia and the intersection of minority status and privilege present in South Asian spaces. The goal is to represent the “utopia” that the suburbs are often portrayed as, while acknowledging that its peace can oftentimes be complicated by requirements of assimilation and the idea of “The American Dream.” Through creating scenes that are not far off from the reality of the life South Asians live in the suburbs, I begin a dialogue about how, as minorities, South Asians hold a space of simultaneous privilege and invisibility.

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An Inner Journey Tibet has long been a mysterious place that takes my

things people think of Tibet. But when I drove far away from

fancy. Most people in Tibet Province in China believe

the last big city and really into the Tibetan countryside, I finally

in Geluk, which is one of the four factions of Tibetan

understood what I found: it was not death or next life, nor

Buddhism. They believe that wealth, fame, food, and

Buddhism; I found myself. In the city, I was labeled and was

everything else were gained by their spiritual practice

given a lot of titles. Such a glorious surface stops me from

in the previous life, and the more they accomplish their

being myself. But here, without anything that others put on

practice in the current life, the better the next life they

me, my spirit was free.

will have. When they come to death, some of them would choose a celestial burial, which means nourishing vultures with their dead bodies as the final contribution to the world. Their faiths get stronger as they age, and they use their entire lives to practice what they believe in.

I was a spectator in Tibet. I recorded what I saw, including scenery which I thought might enhance my audience’s understanding of this project. True, my photos may include some bias that city people have about Tibet, but also admiration, for Tibetan people’s ability to be themselves. As

I went to Tibet for the second time this summer. Originally

for myself, these images can always remind me of a time to

on this trip, I wanted to find subjects related to death or

indulge in an inner-journey getting away from the hustle and

Buddhism or people’s lifestyle which are the most common

bustle of cities and finding who I am.

STEVE WANG

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「ハーフ」HA-FU ハーフ」is an ongoing photographic documentary series that photographs mixed Japanese race individuals residing in Japan. The series aims to raise questions about the assumptions surrounding national and cultural identity.

Ha-fu is the Japanese term for an individual who is born from one ethnic Japanese parent and one non-Japanese parent.

The word is derived from the English term half and from the corruption of the word half-caste , implying that the person only partially belongs to Japan. In a 2018 census, 98% of the Japanese population is considered Japanese, making it an incredibly homogenous nation. When the vast majority of the people generally share the same features, those who do not fit the norm become anomalies and stand out.

These mixed Japanese individuals recounted ostracizing experiences that vary from passive comments to overt racism.

Each person s experience is important because it touches on a variety of perspectives, developing a larger narrative of what it means to belong to a country. 「ハーフだから可愛いよね。」 You re good looking because you are mixed.

「あなたのパパは外国人だからあなたは日本人ではない。」 Your dad is a foreigner so you are not Japanese.

「日本語上手ですね。」 You re so good at Japanese.

「ハーフなのにあなたの顔は残念だね。」 For someone who is mixed, it s a shame you look like that.

SHINA PENG

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Oftentimes people are unaware that these comments can be discriminatory. And though these comments may be insignificant for the person saying it, those who hear it are repeatedly reminded that they do not belong. These ostracizing experiences that they recount can shape the perception of their own multicultural identity. Many ha-fu may say that they do not belong or that they do not fit the stereotype that is perpetuated by the Japanese society for mixed individuals. And though that can be packaged as negativity, it is a reflection of social ideologies that exist globally. Our attention and questions should be directed to the society that expects multicultural individuals to fit into a singular cultural and national narrative.

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SPECIAL BLOOD My sister and I were born with an extremely rare blood platelet disorder called Glanzmann’s Thrombasthenia, a condition that causes excessive bleeding and bruising. Special Blood seeks to bring visibility to our condition with images that emphasize the condition’s physical effects on becomes a landscape where pain and illness are mediated.

ALYSSA DICKSON

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Fire of Istanbul ; Where the Wild Things Roam, and Sometimes Break Out. Everything starts with one simple sentence from

that mystical longing feeling; it is what completes

BESTE ZAN

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Re-imaging the Past II is an ongoing series,

Re-Imagining the Past immorality.” I desire to create cinematic imagery

this time period – as well as investigates the

control their emotions. This series aims to portray

encaptivating imagery that gives these characters multiple layers.

NOA EDEN

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Fragments Fragments is a series of images that documents life in Chinatown in order to convey its resilience during the Coronavirus pandemic. Before the pandemic, the image of Chinatown was lively, spirited, and reminded me of home. However, Chinatown soon entered a dark and discouraging phase with empty streets and struggling businesses. Chinatown had also been the epicenter of anti-Asian attacks, since the virus is often referred to as the “China virus” or “Kung Flu.” As we walk through the streets of Chinatown today, its image of a vibrant, welcoming community seems to shatter into fragments. Chinatown has started to recover, but as wintertime draws near, the community fears another surge in cases. Is there still hope for a quick recovery? Is Chinatown going to be dead forever? Though Chinatown may be hurt and shattered by the pandemic, its residents are united by the same hopes and fears. The grim forecast of what the future holds is not ideal, but people still have to carry on with their daily routine, to make a living, and to fight through. Through black and white street photography, I aim to provoke the mood of solidarity that people are feeling and going through. Even if the immediate future is not hopeful, people still need to carry on with their lives hoping to see a better tomorrow. Through capturing the bits and pieces of Chinatown today as it battles the consequences of the Coronavirus pandemic, the community is in unison on its path to restoring what it used to be. The resiliency of this community will determine whether Chinatown will overcome this crisis or not.

BENSON WU

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Soy Quien Soy Soy quien Latinas are photographed through image. It also perpetuates Eurocentric beauty standards on POC. By allowing each model to pick out what clothes, makeup, and location they wanted to be photographed in, this gives these individuals the power to control their image. Behind this series is a

clothing, makeup, and environment such as their living space and décor also aids in shaping their own image contrary to any

MELODY BALL

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GUN VIOLENCE

LAUREN STONE

Sadly, gun violence is a subject that continues to be relevant in our society.

provoking. It made me, and the people I photographed, think more about the world outside of their relatively protected lives.

I vividly recall the look of horror on my mother’s face when I walked into our kitchen and asked her, “where can I get a bulletproof vest?”

Growing up in Los Angeles, I could visit certain places and see familiar faces to approach for this project. In New York, I had to completely get out of my comfort zone and approach strangers and force them to see the importance of this issue head on. After each photo was taken, I made sure to talk to the person and hear their views on guns and the gun control issue in our country to gain a more well-rounded view on this topic. I am continuing this project in New York, and hope to travel for it in the future.

Gun violence is an issue that has captured my attention for some time now. I began this project a few years ago in Los Angeles, until I brought the cause to New York. In Los Angeles, I rented a fake bullet proof vest and asked random people in my neighborhood to pose doing every day activities while wearing the vest. I wanted to show how the effect of guns has drastically changed the way in which we live our lives and how it can produce fear of where a tragedy can occur at any moment and to anyone anywhere. I wanted a project that challenged me and was thought

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With the added pressure of the coronavirus looming over our heads, I hope this project will reach more people as we fight for more gun control in our country.

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To Lenora, With Love

ELISA LOPEZ

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In 1998, the year I was born and after the death of my grandfather, my grandmother, Lenora, moved to Santiago, Chile to live with my family. For as long as I can remember she has been an incredibly important part of my life. When I was young, she took on the responsibility of taking care of me and my siblings. She took us to school, she cooked for us, she played with us, she cared for us, and became a unique kind of parental figure. My grandmother is extremely important to me, and although that is probably the way most people feel towards their grandparents, the relationship that I have built with her is unlike any other I have ever known. As my grandmother grows older, I ve come to cherish the stories she has to tell and the time spent with her. This project is about sharing moments of intimacy from my grandmother s past and present lives. My grandmother shares anecdotes from her youth and in contrast I narrate moments of the present. The project celebrates the nostalgic memories from the past and demonstrates the simple yet blissful nature of her life in the present. Using archival images taken during special, exciting, and significant moments from my grandmother s youth, there is an experience of witnessing intimate moments from a long time ago, in relation to the experience of intimate moments captured today.

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THE TIBETAN NANNY

I was only seven when my family immigrated to America, but still old enough to notice that most of the women in my community worked as nannies. They often spoke about the milestones of their jinda’s pugu (employer’s children) with the same pride they would use for their own children.

During our first year in America, my mother took up a live-in nannying position as well, though only for a month. As young as I was, I couldn’t understand why she was leaving our family to take care of another.

In the following years, anytime someone my family knew immigrated here, my mother would join her friends in listing which families were looking for new nannies. In my first year of college, I got a first-hand glimpse of the job that was so prevalent in my community when I started babysitting for disposable income. Children answering to the sound of heavily accented English in the schoolyards of neighborhoods like the Upper West Side, became a common sight.

After finding out just how many Americans’ only reference point for Tibet or Himalayan culture was this sought-after commodity, I knew I needed to explore further. Existing online articles also linked their preference for these nannies with the favorable stereotype of being kind and patient caregivers due to their Buddhist background.

PEMA DOLKAR

Using my position as a photojournalist, I document this small piece of the childcare world and the place that women like my mother, cousins, and aunts occupy in it. My subjects are women currently employed as nannies and the children in their care, as well as former nannies whose first jobs post immigration were working in childcare.

I was curious to know if, and how caring for a child changed when the basis of the care was a monetary transaction. Is there a ratio of love-to-finance that sums up the experience?

While there’s obviously both economic and racial dynamics at play, I don’t want to paint either party involved in a patronizing light. Instead, I seek to encourage dialogue between these families and the “second mothers” that watch their children through my photographs in the hopes that they will examine the nature of their shared relationship.

Now, like myself, many first generation children have grown up. The years of watching other families’ children when they would’ve preferred to be with their own, have allowed us to pursue different fields of work. Families have also started looking for more linguistically proficient nannies to assist their children in their academic endeavors. Does this mean that the prevalence of Tibetan nannies will begin to decline?

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FACULTY 2017 - 2021

STAFF

Ulrich Baer Caitlin Berrigan Wafaa Bilal Terry Boddie Isolde Brielmaier Kalia Brooks Mark Bussell Sandrine Colard Yolanda Cuomo Erika DeVries Thomas Drysdale Sean Fader Cate Fallon Nichole Frocheur Snow Fu Mark Jenkinson Melissa Harris Elizabeth Kilroy Lili Kobielski Astrid Lewis-Reedy Elaine Mayes Ari Melenciano Editha Mesina Diana McClure Charles Nesbit Lorie Novak Paul Owen Karl Peterson Christopher Phillips Shelley Rice Joseph Rodriguez Bayeté Ross Smith Jeffrey Henson Scales Deborah Willis Cheryl Yun-Edwards

Edgar Castillo Niki Kekos Patricia McKelvin Mary Notari Adam Ryder Caleb Savage

Printed by Fort Orange Press, Albany, NY Copyright © 2021 New York University Tisch School of the Arts 721 Broadway, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10003 www.tisch.nyu.edu/photo tischphoto@nyu.edu 212-998-1930

Thank You: Allyson Green, Dean, Tisch School of the Arts Deborah Willis, PhD, Chair, Department of Photography and Imaging Thank you to Tom Drysdale and Paul Owen, in their retirement, for their years of teaching and dedication to the department.

This catalog was designed and produced by Boie Studio in collaboration with the students in the Senior Directed Project courses. www.boiestudio.com Instagram @boiestudio