Photo Profile : Alyssa Urtula

Hello, my name is Alyssa Urtula and I am a young aspiring photographer. My work consists of both digital and analog photography. My photography has a wide range of messages and techniques from the beginning of my work to the more recent, in conjunction to the switch from analog to digital.

To begin with, I started out my photography with mainly analog because that is what I was learning in school. It was all black and white film photography. I slowly but surely got the hang of the difficult process and soon fell in love with it. My photographs at first were just experimentation of random things or people around me. As time passed I have developed a certain skill and new eye for the vision and tone of photography that I wanted to set.

My more recent work are many self portraits or of people who are close to me. The self portraiture became a signature of my art work. I am not self centered like what some people who do not understand the meaning of my work would say. I am purely using myself as my own muse for self reflection and exploration.

My photography has allowed me to discover myself as a person and as an artist, as well as connect to others around me. My main influences are many artists such as Cindy Sherman, Ken Ohara, Maggie Taylor, and Roy Lichtenstein, culture, my family and friends, fashion, and literature such as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. All of these influences are evident in some aspects of my work; they all make their connection in some way. Cindy Sherman was my influence in creating self portraits.

Ken Ohara influenced my cultural connection with others especially through his series One. Maggie Taylor has influenced me in also using Alice in Wonderland as her muse; in connection to Lewis Carroll’s book. Roy Lichtenstein’s use of words and text in his work has allowed me to develop my own style of using text in my work to either convey a message, as graphic design, or as both. However, the greatest influence I have in my work is that of my Theory of Knowledge class I took in high school.

It allowed me to discover myself and think about the world around me in a different lens. I believe that my breakthrough photographic series that showcased my theme to the greatest extent was that of my “Alyssa in Wonderland” series. In the end of Alice in Wonderland, Alice looks through a keyhole and sees herself sleeping. She’s talking to herself to wake up and is physically looking at herself. I took this to the next level and used it to portray how I see myself. I used a keyhole vignette technique in the photographs to capture the physical sense of looking at myself. I have used many other techniques to convey a message in my work whether it be for aesthetic or figurative purposes.

My later work is more digital photography and more experimentation with lighting and a subject other than me, however, it did not stray too far away; I have used my sister as my new model for the time being. I have also attempted a photo series geared towards more of a commercial stand point with my American Apparel “Le Sac” series that I did digitally.

I do not use a DSLR for many of my digital photos for the fact that I usually like shooting analog, so I use my simple point and shoot cyber-shot by Sony. For good reason; I like to edit my photos on Photoshop to build up my skills in this ever rapidly advancing technological world. I aspire to be a successful photographer one day, but for now it is something that I like to do for myself as a portal of expression.

Links:

LyssXD.deviantart.com