The future of my new production company: Ultra Violet Productions (named for my Great Grandmother, Violet) will be heavily dependent on success across its social media platforms to begin to reach our audience as we endeavor to create quality content in the world of documentary filmmaking and photojournalism. It is our hope to have a strong social media presence that keeps us connected and relevant in a constantly evolving online world.
The first time I laid eyes on a Diane Arbus photograph, I was in love. This seemingly plain, mousy woman from New York City stared back at me from her numerous self-portraits. They were raw and unedited, and I saw myself in them. She had picked up her commercial photographer husbands’ equipment and started taking pictures not unlike myself with an old boyfriends DSLR. Arbus’s work brought into light the lives of folks on the fringe. She documented the absurdity in the mundane life of suburbanites and the beauty of life on the edges of society and that influence has never left me.
Arbus was a photographer but she was also a documentarian. A photojournalist, telling stories through her images of American life in all its varied forms. It wasn’t until after I entered film school that I would be made aware of Lauren Greenfield’s photojournalistic oeuvre. Another unassuming looking individual with an eye for the obscene but this time she was using film as a medium as well. She was taking it a step further and with great intent was criticizing capitalism both from early on in her career through photography and later on with her documentaries such as The Queen of Versailles (2012) and Generation Wealth (2018).
Through these two influences along with countless others I came to the realization that storytelling was not limited to pen and paper. I could make art that would have the audience seeing exactly what I saw. And furthermore, I was no longer tethered in regard to sharing with the audience my art. With the rise of the era of social media, telling our stories was now as simple as touching a screen while in range of a decent wi-fi connection. Not only can we share our art, our stories but we can share who we are as artists, as people by connecting with our viewers more intimately than ever. I am now being made aware of visual artists from all walks of life through platforms such as Instagram. I can follow their creative processes, production and their everyday lives as they navigate their worlds and make their art all from the comfort of my home. As the world changes around us this freedom that visual artists have to create and be seen is so important. We all turn to art especially in these uncertain times to comfort us, to wake us up. Just like my younger self staring at Diane Arbus’s self-portrait and seeing myself, we are all witnessing one another and bettering our understanding of the world around us via these modern social platforms.
Works Cited
Diane Arbus exhibition coming to the AGO in 2020
https://www.theartstory.org/artist/arbus-diane/
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/diane-arbus-5271/three-images-diane-arbus
http://www.faheykleingallery.com/artists/lauren-greenfield/series/fast-forward?view=slider#10
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/03/business/lauren-greenfield-generation-wealth
https://www.behance.net/gallery/93763963/Him-Them
These portraits were taken of two individuals whom are very dear to me for different reasons. I love taking portraits. Especially on stark backgrounds without distraction or complicated artifice. It allows the audience to focus on the subjects’ expression & body language. The process of connecting to someone in a studio setting like that is exhilareting for me as a photographer.
This brief moment captured in my apartment has me describing the tribulations and rewards of deciding to return back to post secondary as a 32 year old. It was simple to make but I think all you need sometimes is to open up and show people a glimpse into your tiny world to connect.
Please go take a look!
These photos are part of series that I am very proud of. I was inspired by the inanimate objects that we grow attachments to over our lives. In this case my partner Graham’s vest covered in patches and their collection of dice that they carry around in an antique suitcase. This is work done in our very own photography studio at Durham College. I am in love with the colors and the story they tell about the wonderful subjects. They are telling and obscure all at once.
My name is Alicia (she/they pronouns) and I am a queer femme mama of two elderly cats and a teenage beagle. I am a late to the races student at 32 years of age of Video Production at Durham College and my love for film has carried me through 15 years of corporate/customer service related employment before deciding to pursue my dream of doing something I would be more enthusiastic to wake up for in the morning. I love my family both chosen and assigned fiercely, and they inspire and push me to create and live authentically at all costs. I am well-travelled, having seen the better part of Europe while living out of my father’s old army duffle and wandering all across Canada and the USA. I lived in Quebec for 3 years and am still mildly bilingual despite my best efforts to never practice. I am hoping to be a part of making both documentary style content that centers and empowers queer and marginalized groups as well as having a great interest in fictional horror as a vessel to convey messages of dehumanization and demonization in our society. I am a writer and preproduction and conceptualization are my focus but I also very much homing in on my technical skills both from behind the camera and with editing. It is important to me to remain a student for life in one way or another both in the classroom and out.
Alicia Patten Videography