Saturday, January 18, 2014

Sandra L. Dyas

    Effortlessly beautiful; those are the words I would use to describe the work of Sandra L. Dyas. When looking at each of the photographs she displayed in the Wriston Gallery as well as those online, a constant theme that I see come through her photographs is a sense of being at the right place at the right time, with the right eye and the right equipment to capture it all. All of her photographs have a naturalistic feel to them and when listening to her speak in the lecture that is further emphasized. Sandra’s approach to finding subjects for her photographs seems so random and fluid. However, stylistically her photographs are obviously highly composed and structured.
One of the things that I found fascinated about Sandra was her age. She spoke about being a mother to her daughters and a grandmother to Caroline, her granddaughter/muse. It was interesting to me how she grew up in a world where technology was very different and although she had always been a photographer, the changing environment changed her way of creating art. She went from an artist who used actual film to one who works solely in the digital format. One would think that her pictures would look somewhat different as time passed, but they don’t. I still see Sandra every step of the way.
     In her earlier photographs, just as her recent ones, her composition is simple, stripped almost. The photographs, even though the years and variation of mediums, still feel personal. When speaking with Sandra she detailed how much she uses natural lighting and compositions that she simply comes across in a particular moment of time. She did mention she has a fascination with collages but that even those works of art are composed of photographs that were once simple. I think it’s amazing that her style transcends time and mediums. I personally think that as art becomes more easily customizable through use of technology, that it is harder to remain true to a stripped style; Sandra’s work does just that. She is able to bring forth a seemingly old photographical style into a modern realm and capture audiences’ young and old alike.


3 comments:

  1. I appreciate your generous and insightful comments Steven. Thank you!

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    1. Ha! Thanks so much for taking time out to read it, it was a pleasure to meet you and see your work!

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  2. I relate to this post so much. I'm glad that you saw the same type of artist in her work as well. When a person looks at different artists with different types of technologies, sometimes a completely new type of artists emerges, but Sandy Dyas remains consistent through her work. I loved her visit, she was a pleasure to meet!

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