“See what I see-PHV 2020” is a compilation of individual series created by AJ Almy, Ben Chapman, Kayla Geraci, Maeve McNamara, Nicole Schmidt, Taylor St. Andrassy, and Emma Zimperman. The photographs in this collection are materialized as inkjet prints, cyanotypes, lumen prints, and CMYK process prints using both digital and traditional methods with a variety of subject matter. It is a representation of the exploration that artists go through while in school to find themes and mediums that interest them, using the camera to help explore the overlooked and to articulate important ideas to a larger audience. All juniors at the Cleveland Institute of Art, Almy and Chapman are majoring in video + digital cinema while Geraci, McNamara, Schmidt, St. Andrassy, and Zimperman are majoring in photography. This academic setting encourages creativity and original thought in order to create compelling work that both inspires the artist and intrigues the viewer. Through group discussion and critical analysis, the artists have assisted each other with conceptual refinement while also building a community that allows for further collaboration.
The series in “See what I see-PHV 2020” focus on—or are iterations of—subjects that each
artist has been investigating throughout their time in the undergraduate
program at CIA. The diversity present in a small group living in the same area
while taking similar classes is a testament to the creative process and how
ideas can be translated in different ways. Landscape, portraiture, and
interiors are used to talk about ideas such as impermanence, organic beauty,
adventure, sentimentality, and representation. “