“The photographer who works with leftovers!”

In one of my recent classes, I told my instructor that I was like a “chef who works with leftovers.” What I meant was that I frequently go back to my old work and pull something from that image to make one outstanding image. I have tons of old photos that I never gave a second thought about and more importantly, never was going to use again. Now in my final class here, I found myself settling into being a conceptual photographer. This style of photography allows me to compose an image with tons of layers all combined into one. My concept is not hard, I just think of unconventional ways to express myself as a photographer. I like clean lines, but at times a bit of chaos within the image. The image below is made up of 8 different images all shot at different times and different locations.

Quiana P Jackson. Untitled, 2014

As a student I have learned my camera in and out, new techniques and different genres, but while working as a photographer in my personal life, I struggled to find what made me feel most creative. I spoke before about the Creative Process in a previous blog post, but now I needed to explore my visual creative process to be where I am today.  Every day I am learning something new with conceptual photography. Every day I am finding out something new with my own photography. Every day I am getting one step closer to being the photographer that I know resides in me.

Quiana P Jackson. Untitled, 2014