The Daily talked to Alyssa Irizarry, a freshman in the Combined Degree Program with the SMFA, about photography, aquariums and being comfortable in front of the camera.
Tufts Daily: Do you find a big difference between exploring the body through photography and drawing?
Alyssa Irizarry: Well with photography I'm using my friends as the models, so a lot of the time.
I have to kind of urge them to loosen up and act a certain way and pose in a certain way, but when I'm drawing it's kind of like they know what they're doing and I can work without considering how they're feeling if they're nervous or embarrassed. That way I can focus more and work quickly, but with my friends I have to concentrate on their emotions and how they're going to react.
TD: And you want that to be part of the work, right?
AI: Yeah definitely, that's a whole part of the piece is capturing their reactions, seeing if they're comfortable in front of the camera, and seeing how they react with me and being nude.
TD: Do you think that discomfort is true with photography in general?
AI: Well, with my experience with taking people's pictures, and especially when I've modeled, you have to adjust to having this camera in your face.
You can be natural but at the same time getting your picture taken is kind of unnatural because you have this contraption in your face, and you have to act like you don't see it. It's kind of like that with portraits unless they're voyeuristic. I think that's all part of taking peoples' pictures.
TD: Have you been mostly working with photography, or is there another medium you like to work in?
AI: This semester I've been working mostly with photography. I do work in my sketchbook, mostly collage and mixed media.
I do like to paint and draw and I like to work with different mediums because I think it's good to have the experience, but right now I'm working with photography mostly because I want to focus on that, since in high school I didn't get the photography experience that I wanted.
TD: How has your first year as a combined degree student been?
AI: It's definitely been what I wanted to get out of the program. I've been able to take the liberal arts classes that have been really interesting and I've been able to focus on art and take new art classes that I couldn't take in high school....
I'm happy with the flexibility of the program because I don't feel restrained by any kind of structure in the program, so I can take whatever I want and just expand as an artist and academically.
TD: Is there a particular person or experience that has really influenced your art?
AI: Well I've been taking art all throughout high school and before that. I don't know, it's always just been something that I fell back on when I wasn't enjoying other classes; art was always the one I did enjoy.
I also went to the Maryland Institute College of Art when I was a junior in high school, and being surrounded by other art students engaged in their artwork, it was really creatively inspiring and having so much artistic energy around me really made me realize I wanted to be in an environment like that, because it's something that I enjoy and have confidence in.
TD: Are you looking to do something with art later in your life, like in a career?
AI: Well I'm interested in marine biology also, and I kind of want to incorporate the two, like doing aquarium exhibit design or traveling and taking pictures of marine life or working somewhere like the Galapagos and just working there and doing art. So right now I'm looking for ways to combine the two things that I'm really interested in.
-by Sarah Cowan
