b.

I kind of discussed part of this in my last question of the week post. In terms of commercialism and the media together, I mean the media obviously influences photography a ton, as I previously stated. Commercialism comes into play when you start talking about any sort of portraiture really unless you’re doing a photoshoot just for fun. You get paid for your work. For my work specifically, a lot of my work is done just for fun or to complete projects and create memories, it’s for me and for my subject - it hasn’t really been about the profit if we’re speaking in terms of money, but instead it’s made the memories and the stories my “profit.” I have been paid for some of my work however, but it’s never been about the money for me, so I wouldn’t say that the impact of commercialism and the media on my work specifically is “bad.”

Well, as my main medium is photography, I’d say I honestly do research everyday whether I realize it or not. I mean, with the media constantly at our fingertips, I am consistently seeing photography and practicing photography and thinking about and evaluating things like lighting and composition, angles, subject matter, the background, etc etc. I take hundreds of photos a day through the media, and thousands of mental notes when I look at a photo. Of course not every single photo is strategically planned out, but even so, as an artist my brain is trained to notice the details in a photo and I take my “research” based off of that.

Hmm..interesting question. Honestly, I wouldn’t say there’s any super specific artworks or artists that have been super influential in my work. I tend to explore more styles that I like, but I don’t always look at the artist or specific pieces. In terms of photography though, I would say that people like Brandon Woelfel, who is quite an accomplished photography and not much older than myself, and smaller nature and portrait photographers have been influential in my work in terms of style and editing. Most of the time I try keep my own style while somewhat incorporating ideas from these other artists’ pieces or photos.

Hmm..interesting question. I don’t know that I would say that it relates or is involved with any particular “movement” within the visual art world, but I would say that my photography and various other works definitely fit a certain “vibe” or “look” within the visual art/photography culture/world. A lot of photography revolves around nature and mixing portaits with nature, so I would say that a lot of my work fits in or relates with that, probably. 

http://www.artnet.com/artists/sarah-sze/