Departure Point - Courtney Fusselman

Sometimes I let myself forget that I am a writer. I venture off into more visual mediums that get me out of my brain and into the world more easily than words are able. Photography and writing are two powerful forces in my life.. completely different in their execution of the same things.

To provide something to look at; to experience aesthetics that comfort and entertain. 

Photos: creating thoughtful response in us, but also knee-jerk, physical attraction. I track down the part of me that responds to basic qualities of photography: the sheer pleasure that 'good photos' can be to my eye - the way that it is informally, simply fun - the sharing, and the human thing about it that I love the most: no matter the photograph, someone once stood from that window, in front of this person or on top of that hill, and they grabbed this moment with their box of light and they gave it to you. 

There is an obsessive component as well. Recording things, one chief use for both writing and photography, becomes a focus. Every lost moment is a misery. Often I feel that half my drive for creating work in these mediums comes from my desire to fossilize every memory (how we felt/looked; what we ate/wore; what the weather was like when we felt good; words that came out of us; someplace we spent a lot of time; days that were peaceful, or long),. I am not sure if I want to feed that compulsion – to embrace it and expand it, or if I could try to let the glimpse of a celebratory side take over… get out of documenting my own life and plunge myself into an independent world.

I believe in funny photos. An image that invokes joy, silliness, or affection for the subject is more important to me than any abstract, technically perfect photograph. 

I hope, this semester, to find new ways to present my work – to learn how I want my form and content to behave. It is all so personal to me. Not a lot of what I do has very much to do with a clear statement, nor do I have an active goal; I am not trying to break any specific ground. I see beauty in my loved ones, and all around my life. I feverishly grasp at all of it. I want to stretch my eye.