Photography:
Second Place, Most Professional

Kristi Kienholz
Minneapolis College of Art and Design

Pears

Artist's Statement: With this series, I initially wanted formal portraits of my family members, allowing their faces to describe their personalities. I found I wanted to say more than what the facial features were providing. I wanted to focus on the true individuals I know deep down inside, revealing a trait they normally would hide or are unaware of.

I found that using pears allowed me to describe these individuals deeper and more accurately than the actual portraits ever could. I described personality traits by manipulating the pear's figure, making each pear unique to each member it mirrored.

With a Kodak Digital 280 camera, I captured my family portraits. I intended to shoot these images out of focus to add to my final output intentions. I adjusted minor color balances in Photoshop. I printed my final images on an Epson 2000, using tissue-thin brown-bag paper. I then cut my images out and mounted them onto white Rives BFK paper. By doing so, I achieved an old fashioned-painterly quality print, adding character to the "family" portraits.