Alums - UNM

Tami Lynn

http://www.tamilynnphotography.com/

artist statement:

Though we consider the places that we sleep, eat, and live to be the most important and safest space we can be in, over time their relevance is numbed to a mere memory as we move and displace ourselves. Every room is reduced to minor details: the clock on the wall or the cord that we always trip over, while the actual room is layered with representations of other similar spaces that have littered our memory.

In truth, the places that we considered so important, where so many relevant things have occurred, becomes necessary as a safe haven for our memories more than for its actual representation.

what do you love about the MFA program at the University of New Mexico?

My favorite thing about UNMs graduate program is the ability to shape the program into what you desire. Every student has different needs and different expectations but there are so many faculty members and departments with varying methods that it becomes impossible for a student to be unable to find the proper path for them.

graduation date: May 2012

 

 

 

 

 

 

Colby Sempek

http://colby-sempek.com/

artist statement:

In my photographic series that contributes to the larger multimedia body of work, projectanalemma.com, I analyze, critique and conflate scientific objectivity and artistic subjectivity. Their approach and goals in examining reality can seem contradictory, but I see similar tools at use that are employed in different ways. The photographs serve as documents of the missions, experiments and goings-on at Project Analemma, an active research organization working to spread awareness of and gain knowledge from the contracting universe.

While I attempt to offer projectanalemma.com with a veneer of truth, every detail of the website is, in fact, premeditated and constructed. The photographic aspects of the website are mainly composite images that layer and blend various photographs of the sky, clouds and other elements like smoke & food coloring. Through this post-production process, I am able to produce images that rival those of the Hubble Space Telescope in their apparent veracity.

what do you love about the MFA program at the University of New Mexico?

What I like most about the MFA program here at UNM is that the program and faculty facilitate and encourage cross-pollination not just inter-departmentally, but across the entire university. There are spaces like ARTSLab that encourage collaboration between engineers and artists. But in general, the university is receptive to their artists and their diverse interests. Students that come in as photographers can be content in continuing to make photographic work, but experimentation and development is nurtured to allow us a bigger box in which to make work. The faculty are great and always willing to help, from doing simple studio visits to full blown independent studies too. Even outside of school they're always there for any kind of support.

graduation date: May 2012

Colby Sempek, Event Horizon #4