Hudson Boose
Reality can get boring. Once a routine is established, things quickly fall into place. And once in place, it’s hard to fall out. Rinse and repeat, right? The world is a big place, with opportunities left and right. But my world is small—five days of school a week and a four-hour work shift on weekends. Steady. I hit the requirements. The path to becoming successful in life starts here. I’m sure that statement is true, but in the back of my mind, I contemplate what success really means. If this is it, I’m not so sure I’m a fan. Skew the boring! Skew the norm! That’s what my photos do. I try to break the barrier between reality and the imaginary—bigger, bolder, making everything a little more fun. You might have to look, and maybe even think twice.
I walk by a creek every day on my way to school. Often, trash and shopping carts float downstream. It is neglected, but still beautiful. When I take a photo through the reflection of this creek, the colors of the water and surroundings come alive. What is neglected on the surface becomes magical when looked at from another angle. Life is what you make it—and so are photos. I find that I create photos rather than just capture them. In the case of the photo of my mother’s eye, by using a darkroom enlarger lens, I was able to make her eye more profound and add emphasis to the focus of the photo. Experimentation is key. If you can first capture a viewer’s attention, you can bring them into the world of your photo—and the stories you want to tell with it. An eye has to be caught before a heart can be touched.
