{"id":48539,"date":"2017-12-15T15:16:12","date_gmt":"2017-12-15T20:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=48539"},"modified":"2017-12-15T15:16:12","modified_gmt":"2017-12-15T20:16:12","slug":"world-class-photographer-with-a-brock-connection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2017\/12\/world-class-photographer-with-a-brock-connection\/","title":{"rendered":"World-class photographer with a Brock connection"},"content":{"rendered":"

At first glance, the photo is a portrait of a young woman.<\/p>\n

On closer inspection, the \u2018woman\u2019 isn\u2019t human at all. It is, in fact, an android called Erica, developed by Hiroshi Ishiguro Laboratories in Osaka University, Japan.<\/p>\n

The photograph, taken by Finnish artist Maija Tammi and titled \u201cOne of Them is a Human #1<\/em>,\u201d won third prize in this year\u2019s prestigious Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize.<\/p>\n

The photograph also has a surprising Brock connection.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Finnish artist Maija Tammi, who studied at Brock University in 2008-09<\/p><\/div>\n

Tammi spent a year studying film and art at Brock University in 2008-09. Although she already had a background in photojournalism, her experience at Brock, and in particular a course with Professor Amy Friend, encouraged her towards art photography.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Visual Arts program at Brock offers an abundance of opportunity for one-on-one interactions in class with students and professors,\u201d says Friend.<\/p>\n

Such interactions allow for personalized and concentrated instruction that allow students to reach their potential.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaija flourished in this environment and took advantage of the surrounding community with her interactive installations and thought-provoking course projects,\u201d says Friend.<\/p>\n

Tammi cites the film Five Obstructions<\/em>, which she first saw in Friend\u2019s course, as particularly influential.<\/p>\n

The 1967 film shows the remaking of the same story five times, each with a different obstruction. This process of rethinking and reframing inspired Tammi.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce you have thought of a concept,\u201d she explains, \u201cyou rethink it several times from different perspectives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tammi was immediately interested in the ways obstructions can encourage creativity and used the idea in her class project, redoing the same photograph multiple times with different obstructions.<\/p>\n

This experience in Friend\u2019s course influenced her approach to photography. She gives herself obstructions, such as limiting her camera gear, to encourage her own creativity.<\/p>\n

Tammi is particularly attracted to portraiture, which she says tells us more about ourselves as viewers of the photograph than the subject of the photo as we project our stereotypes on them.<\/p>\n

One of Them is a Human #1<\/em> has attracted a lot of attention in the arts community. Although the Taylor Wessing contest rules state that the subject needs to be alive, Tammi\u2019s photograph was accepted because it raises important questions about what it means to be human.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very excited about the conversation that has arisen,\u201d Tammi says. \u201cIt is time to think about what it means to be alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tammi doesn\u2019t shy away from difficult subjects; she is currently completing a practise-based PhD exploring representations of sickness in art photography.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like topics that are very difficult and people don\u2019t like to talk about,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Friend, who exhibited work in the same show as Tammi in New York in August 2015, has been watching her former student\u2019s success closely.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer success is indicative of the connections that many students make with classmates and professors,\u201d Friend says. \u201cWhen I see opportunities that fit her areas of expertise I send them her way. These are the types of extended interactions that happen when we are given space to know our students.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tammi\u2019s work was one of three finalists chosen from more than 5,717 submissions. Selected submissions, including the shortlisted portraits and competition winner<\/a>, are on display at the National Portrait Gallery in London, England.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At first glance, the photo is a portrait of a young woman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":48540,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[119,3319,37,1,4],"tags":[2941,480,46,411],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48539"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48539"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48542,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48539\/revisions\/48542"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}