selkie golden light streamed through
luscious green hills reflected in the
mirror like lake around me in the nimbin
province of northern vietnam damn I had
just taken a hard fall on a flimsy
bamboo dock I was so intrigued so
involved with what images I could create
from the moment that I had tripped on a
little rope and fallen flat on my face
of course I ninja rolled back onto my
feet and kept on shooting photography
did make me athletic mom but I must have
hit my head at a certain angle because
when I got up I suddenly noticed how
naturally beautiful my surroundings were
I had planned it to adjust to saturation
correct color balance and throw in some
sun rays and perhaps a bird or two for a
good measure
why did I feel this need to change what
I saw
why wasn’t life enough if photos collect
beauty that’s why I like to take
pictures photos I believe are made for a
mix of three purposes one of them is to
trigger an emotional response through
the telling of a story photos that focus
on storytelling tend to hit me the
hardest taking something I don’t
understand and making it so obvious it’s
almost offensive like this picture I
took of a Singaporean long tailed
macaque that evokes the story of a
protective mother when I gaze into the
doleful eyes of this macaca I see the
story of a mother who’s concerned for
her child’s future another purpose is to
reveal hidden details sights that the
human eye can’t see it’s a unique view
into the world past human perception
these are my Terrapin friends there are
also two Singaporean and I was able to
capture the hidden detail of someone’s
the most popular purpose is to simply
record memories this is perhaps the
biggest reason why pictures are taken
especially in everyday life while in
Brindavan one of the most ancient
religious cities in the world in India I
met a boy who is not only my age but who
also shared my name yesh I waited for
the perfect moment to best memorialize
our interaction as he played cricket in
a temple that was both crumbling yet
powerful I wanted to remember this
person who is almost like my counterpart
more spiritual and more free-spirited
when I returned to my mundane life in
Edina photography has an intent to it to
capture a specific moment within a
specific composition presented with
other specific photos when we are
capturing images to preserve or to share
our experiences this can become an issue
as Susan Sontag explains in her essay
collection on photography photos seem
like they portray reality but are a
medium that doesn’t reflect how we
experience it this makes photos more
than real
it makes them surreal here I’m trying to
show a fractured perception what is
photographed how it is photographed and
when it is photographed are all the very
intentional decisions which makes a
photo as prone to change based on the
creator’s intent as any other art form
if this intent isn’t to accurately
represent reality then our perception of
images could be like Dolly’s dream right
here let’s think of it like this with
these stacked frogs each frog represents
another layer of deviation that photos
have from reality the first layer of
surrealism comes from freezing time
photos take slices of time and expose
them to far more scrutiny and attention
than any other passing moment I took
this picture of a humpback whale in Baja
California a couple years back and that
one beautiful millisecond in which the
whale breached represents the entire
trip a three hour long trip filled with
seasick
and unchanging expanse of ocean the
second layer of Surrealism comes from
intentionally choosing elements and then
changing them photos are only a small
window in the full view of the
photographer often the goal of making an
image is to make a picture that is as
intriguing as perfect as possible well
it is easy to spot the doctoring with an
image like this it’s almost impossible
with this one I had added in the farmer
in the back I mean technology even lets
you create this it’s my deepest and most
thought-provoking art new phones can
automatically apply filters that slim
your figure and remove skin and
blemishes they can even change the
background and lighting to make you look
like you’re a professionally
photographed editing is becoming more
and more accessible and its results are
being shared any rates never seen it
before even after all that composition
let’s return to my Frog friends there’s
still yet another layer of surrealism
added to our photos we constantly pick
and choose what to show to the world I
do it too almost every day by choosing
to display only the images that show me
and my life in the best light literally
I changed the way that others see my
experiences well I can claim that I came
across a three stack of frogs in my back
yard to be honest I caught a couple next
to each other and stacked them until
they accepted their new wives they were
gently unstacked after their photo
session no frog friends were hurt in the
creation of this image so sure
photos are buried in three layers of
distorting reality frozen in time
calculated risk we see so many of these
moments that are artificially intriguing
that they may become our baseline
expectation
for what all of life should look like
our brain has a tendency to acclimate to
over stimulation by increasing its
standards for what is stimulating a
fascinating neuroscience study done by
McGill University on mice released
pleasure hormones in their brains every
time that they pulled a trigger every
time this they pulled this lever it was
another dose of stimulation the mice
loved this lever so much that they all
soon died from starvation and exhaustion
thankfully most of us aren’t mice
although I do like cheese
even so deluding ourselves with the
extreme selectivity of photography is
like pulling that lever every swipe on
Instagram trains our satisfaction with
life to the surrealism of photography
and not the realism of life we see so
many of these moments that our senses
can be bombarded simply by the quantity
because they’re so cherry-picked meaning
that the surrealism bundle of
photography can be extremely harmful if
taken as a vision of the world
photography for all its purposes of
capturing the world can unintentionally
degrade it one time I was sitting in a
metro bus I didn’t see anyone looking
outside the window but instead looking
in a window holding an endless array of
stimulation I’m certainly guilty I
lifted my own phone to take a picture of
them but the adverse effects from a
photography may play into a larger issue
in our culture of trying too hard to
fill in the gaps in our lives for the
overstimulation this turns into an
endless cycle of compensating for
realities blandness when photographing
widows who had been shoved out of their
homes and who now lived in vindelälven
they would keep coming up to me asking
if they too could have their stories
told and photos taken these woman who
had experienced astronomical amounts of
suffering had bright eyes and wide
smiles
simply because of my attempt to document
their beauty my camera had given them
the spotlight attention that they never
had gotten in their lives even
if photos distort reality their
retention of sight will always be more
vivid than what we can remember we keep
our best memories in photos taking
life’s best moments and holding them
photos let us traverse through time back
to those intense moments of bliss those
moments that are so coveted I created
this image of a tent city for a city of
Minneapolis exhibit on youth trauma
captured by youth another image for the
exhibit shows a friend of mine who
repeatedly faced the derogatory slur
against the LGBTQ community in the
hallways of her high school the unique
ability of photography to communicate
the complexities of an issue quickly and
artistically gives it great power in
being able to help ameliorate societal
issues from the Vietnam War to the
Syrian refugee crisis Photography has
brought far away issues close to our
hearts through its deep surrealism
Photography surrounds everything in a
mist it’s important for the photographer
to use the right to lens when taking a
picture it’s as important that the
viewer uses the right lens to enjoy it
it’s probably in our best interest to
see photography as a medium of
expressing beauty instead of a medium of
expressing and accurately representing
reality Einstein once said that man
should look for what is and not for what
should be the world of images around us
is warped and it’s up to us to decide in
which way today is my mom’s birthday and
I’ll be taking pictures of her to
capture her smiles to capture her love
for me but not to capture the reality
that I want to exist thank you
you
[Music]
[Applause] [Music]
luscious green hills reflected in the
mirror like lake around me in the nimbin
province of northern vietnam damn I had
just taken a hard fall on a flimsy
bamboo dock I was so intrigued so
involved with what images I could create
from the moment that I had tripped on a
little rope and fallen flat on my face
of course I ninja rolled back onto my
feet and kept on shooting photography
did make me athletic mom but I must have
hit my head at a certain angle because
when I got up I suddenly noticed how
naturally beautiful my surroundings were
I had planned it to adjust to saturation
correct color balance and throw in some
sun rays and perhaps a bird or two for a
good measure
why did I feel this need to change what
I saw
why wasn’t life enough if photos collect
beauty that’s why I like to take
pictures photos I believe are made for a
mix of three purposes one of them is to
trigger an emotional response through
the telling of a story photos that focus
on storytelling tend to hit me the
hardest taking something I don’t
understand and making it so obvious it’s
almost offensive like this picture I
took of a Singaporean long tailed
macaque that evokes the story of a
protective mother when I gaze into the
doleful eyes of this macaca I see the
story of a mother who’s concerned for
her child’s future another purpose is to
reveal hidden details sights that the
human eye can’t see it’s a unique view
into the world past human perception
these are my Terrapin friends there are
also two Singaporean and I was able to
capture the hidden detail of someone’s
the most popular purpose is to simply
record memories this is perhaps the
biggest reason why pictures are taken
especially in everyday life while in
Brindavan one of the most ancient
religious cities in the world in India I
met a boy who is not only my age but who
also shared my name yesh I waited for
the perfect moment to best memorialize
our interaction as he played cricket in
a temple that was both crumbling yet
powerful I wanted to remember this
person who is almost like my counterpart
more spiritual and more free-spirited
when I returned to my mundane life in
Edina photography has an intent to it to
capture a specific moment within a
specific composition presented with
other specific photos when we are
capturing images to preserve or to share
our experiences this can become an issue
as Susan Sontag explains in her essay
collection on photography photos seem
like they portray reality but are a
medium that doesn’t reflect how we
experience it this makes photos more
than real
it makes them surreal here I’m trying to
show a fractured perception what is
photographed how it is photographed and
when it is photographed are all the very
intentional decisions which makes a
photo as prone to change based on the
creator’s intent as any other art form
if this intent isn’t to accurately
represent reality then our perception of
images could be like Dolly’s dream right
here let’s think of it like this with
these stacked frogs each frog represents
another layer of deviation that photos
have from reality the first layer of
surrealism comes from freezing time
photos take slices of time and expose
them to far more scrutiny and attention
than any other passing moment I took
this picture of a humpback whale in Baja
California a couple years back and that
one beautiful millisecond in which the
whale breached represents the entire
trip a three hour long trip filled with
seasick
and unchanging expanse of ocean the
second layer of Surrealism comes from
intentionally choosing elements and then
changing them photos are only a small
window in the full view of the
photographer often the goal of making an
image is to make a picture that is as
intriguing as perfect as possible well
it is easy to spot the doctoring with an
image like this it’s almost impossible
with this one I had added in the farmer
in the back I mean technology even lets
you create this it’s my deepest and most
thought-provoking art new phones can
automatically apply filters that slim
your figure and remove skin and
blemishes they can even change the
background and lighting to make you look
like you’re a professionally
photographed editing is becoming more
and more accessible and its results are
being shared any rates never seen it
before even after all that composition
let’s return to my Frog friends there’s
still yet another layer of surrealism
added to our photos we constantly pick
and choose what to show to the world I
do it too almost every day by choosing
to display only the images that show me
and my life in the best light literally
I changed the way that others see my
experiences well I can claim that I came
across a three stack of frogs in my back
yard to be honest I caught a couple next
to each other and stacked them until
they accepted their new wives they were
gently unstacked after their photo
session no frog friends were hurt in the
creation of this image so sure
photos are buried in three layers of
distorting reality frozen in time
calculated risk we see so many of these
moments that are artificially intriguing
that they may become our baseline
expectation
for what all of life should look like
our brain has a tendency to acclimate to
over stimulation by increasing its
standards for what is stimulating a
fascinating neuroscience study done by
McGill University on mice released
pleasure hormones in their brains every
time that they pulled a trigger every
time this they pulled this lever it was
another dose of stimulation the mice
loved this lever so much that they all
soon died from starvation and exhaustion
thankfully most of us aren’t mice
although I do like cheese
even so deluding ourselves with the
extreme selectivity of photography is
like pulling that lever every swipe on
Instagram trains our satisfaction with
life to the surrealism of photography
and not the realism of life we see so
many of these moments that our senses
can be bombarded simply by the quantity
because they’re so cherry-picked meaning
that the surrealism bundle of
photography can be extremely harmful if
taken as a vision of the world
photography for all its purposes of
capturing the world can unintentionally
degrade it one time I was sitting in a
metro bus I didn’t see anyone looking
outside the window but instead looking
in a window holding an endless array of
stimulation I’m certainly guilty I
lifted my own phone to take a picture of
them but the adverse effects from a
photography may play into a larger issue
in our culture of trying too hard to
fill in the gaps in our lives for the
overstimulation this turns into an
endless cycle of compensating for
realities blandness when photographing
widows who had been shoved out of their
homes and who now lived in vindelälven
they would keep coming up to me asking
if they too could have their stories
told and photos taken these woman who
had experienced astronomical amounts of
suffering had bright eyes and wide
smiles
simply because of my attempt to document
their beauty my camera had given them
the spotlight attention that they never
had gotten in their lives even
if photos distort reality their
retention of sight will always be more
vivid than what we can remember we keep
our best memories in photos taking
life’s best moments and holding them
photos let us traverse through time back
to those intense moments of bliss those
moments that are so coveted I created
this image of a tent city for a city of
Minneapolis exhibit on youth trauma
captured by youth another image for the
exhibit shows a friend of mine who
repeatedly faced the derogatory slur
against the LGBTQ community in the
hallways of her high school the unique
ability of photography to communicate
the complexities of an issue quickly and
artistically gives it great power in
being able to help ameliorate societal
issues from the Vietnam War to the
Syrian refugee crisis Photography has
brought far away issues close to our
hearts through its deep surrealism
Photography surrounds everything in a
mist it’s important for the photographer
to use the right to lens when taking a
picture it’s as important that the
viewer uses the right lens to enjoy it
it’s probably in our best interest to
see photography as a medium of
expressing beauty instead of a medium of
expressing and accurately representing
reality Einstein once said that man
should look for what is and not for what
should be the world of images around us
is warped and it’s up to us to decide in
which way today is my mom’s birthday and
I’ll be taking pictures of her to
capture her smiles to capture her love
for me but not to capture the reality
that I want to exist thank you
you
[Music]
[Applause] [Music]
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