Sense of Place: Bozeman

Finally figured out, pitched and got my senior thesis project approved. Here is an excerpt from my proposal paper:
“Each place, like a person, is unique, with a style and a personality of its own…the photographer has only one job, to reveal that character and communicate it to the viewer.” Jay Maisel

In travel photography, the most important skill is being able to capture the sense of a place. To become a great travel photographer, it is important not only to photograph exotic destinations such as Greece or Africa, but also to be able to photograph any location, especially those closest in proximity. So photographing where I live is a start in my journey to becoming a travel photographer.

My senior photography project is going to capture the unique “personality” of Bozeman by photographing the people, the events, the details and architecture. I hope that this project develops my ways of seeing while exploring any destination. I am going to walk around Bozeman and photograph familiar areas and unexplored ones. The most important goal of this project is that I capture a sense of place, as Jay Maisel’s quote states.

This project is influenced by my intense wanderlust. I have always been interested in travel: Different cultures, food, people and landscapes of various countries. My travel magazines always inspire me to explore and photograph places my friends and family have never seen. It inspires me to capture these places in my own style and illustrate my own adventures. When in Greece, I saw a Georges Meiss’s work that captured the iconic things he noticed while photographing in the Greek islands: Doors, bright colors, the older locals. I immediately was interested in how he documented his adventures and he has been an inspiration to me while traveling. Jay Maisel came and gave a talk at MSU and motivated me to look at a place with an open mind and to photograph everything. The very important piece of advice that he gave to his audience – make it your own. This is what I want to do when photographing Bozeman (or anywhere for that matter).

So that ended up being much longer than I thought it was - but now you have an idea of what I will be working on all semester long.