Dalaney Diaz-Tapia
Since childhood, my mother has always deeply felt the importance of photographs. At the age of fourteen, she immigrated to the United States completely empty-handed. She spent decades communicating with her family in Mexico through photographs. Despite me empathizing with my mother, I completely failed to understand the importance of photography in her life. I have since learned to cherish and savor every photo I see and create. When documenting inside my home, I often manipulate light to create colorful scenarios with artificial lighting. These manipulations depict the space around me as an altered version of my reality, making my domestic space look and feel different. I enjoy adjusting the color and lighting in my photographs because it contributes to evoking a sense of absence, or warmth. Other components I prioritize in my creative process are vantage point, framing, and composition. I strive to compose photographs in interesting viewpoints while creating a clean frame. I frequently incorporate myself into my photographs, but obscure my face to prevent the artwork from being about me. I’d like to find a balance between creating scenarios and including props that are familiar to the viewer while also being distant. Although these are two seemingly opposing forces, bringing familiarity to my photographs allows me and the audience to be vulnerable through forming connections, while distancing myself in my art allows individuals to create their own narratives of my photographs. The artists who inspired me throughout my time at Expanding the Walls are Elliott Jerome Brown Jr., Nan Goldin, and Jimmy DeSana. These photographers focus on ideas relating to capturing moments of intimacy and domestic spaces, and exploring LGBTQ bodies.Leap of Faith, 2020Left in San Miguel, 2020