Departure Point - Despina Costalas

Hello everyone! I'm Despina and I'm currently a third year(?) Political Science major, minoring in (maybe) psychology and (hopefully) the non-Tyler art minor.... maybe both, who knows. This is my second semester since transferring from Drexel in January as an International Area Studies major and photography minor, and my second class at Tyler(!).
My background in photography is lengthy, but scattered and relatively intermediate. I first worked as a darkroom "apprentice" for a professor at American University in 2009 and since have held a few exhibits in both New York and Washington, DC during high school. Recently, I've been a staff photographer at FringeArts, Underground Arts, and Drexel's Intercultural Center. I have also worked in a photography studio, but I didn't particularly enjoy it because we basically only shot for weddings (monotonous fest wooo), corporate events and boudoir, aka rich wives wanting to spice up their marriage and hiring us to take oddly forced-looking pictures of themselves.

My love of photography began in the summer of 9th grade when my father gave me his Olympus film camera that he used and loved when he was a photography and architecture major at Spring Garden College in Philadelphia. I've been surrounded by the dyad of art/culture and politics my whole life, considering that I grew up in DC, partially Greece and partially Philly.

I'm so excited to be in the darkroom again after 5 years or so of inactivity, and develop my portfolio. In fact the first time I ever began the craft was through conventional film photography. I was forced to switch to digital once I left high school, however, for photography minors were not allowed to use the darkroom or open studio at my previous university.
I want to master the techniques and relearn them on a more advanced level. In the past three years, I have lost over 4,000 digital pictures and digital negatives, and it's such a shame. I'm basically starting from scratch again.

                                      

I love humans and I love how they interact with their environment and culture. In fact, that's the entire motivation behind why I chose my program of study in the first place: to research, analyze and document people and how they affect "space", notably in urban or international settings.
I'm interested in expanding my subject matter more towards landscapes and object shots. I have a hard time with object shots because I have a hard time feeling satisfied with any of my results.

 

I need to include this man I met in Greece for the emphasis of his awesome beard. 

 When I shoot, I tend to choose one specific detailed of the shot that I enjoy the most and attempt to exemplify how unique I find this detail. Lately, I've been really into shooting pictures where the subject matter directly juxtaposes another aspect in the shot, or something about the subject matter that doesn't entirely make sense.

This is a little mini project from my AP studio art class in high school. 

Keys & broken glass & mirrors & eye-less faces & weird lips & multiple versions of self~ 

Symbolic presence and tangible evidence of emotion is also very important to me. I tend to have the most fun shooting at an event that's particularly weird or its intentions were spontaneous. I'm into quirky art parties and encounters with nature and kitschy objects and abandoned places... or seemingly dangerous places for that matter. It makes things interesting.

  

I'm very drawn to urban environments because there's always a lot to talk about and its constantly changing. 

                                        Also, lines. I love me some organic and geometric patterns. 

                                                           

With my major and all the endless papers I have to write, it feels really liberating to step into another frame of thought (since its where I'd rather be anyway). My goal is to familiarize myself with more non-linear styles of photography in our class in order to expand my creativity. I'm so glad that I'm able to be in an artistic environment where I have the freedom to learn, express and surround myself with friendly, awesome people.

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