SAN FRANCISCO
Winner of UnScene Photography Tour and 944 Magazine Seven-City Tour Stop
Cody Bratt
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Photographer Statement:
“Like many kids, I've played with cameras my entire life, but I only started shooting as a practice four years ago. Since photography serves as a vehicle to express my sense of wanderlust, my subject matter ranges from curious sea shots to abandoned couches at night in the Mojave Desert.
More abstractly, I believe a photograph can only hope to faithfully capture an emotion. To say it captures a complete scene is far too inaccurate, as the scene changes from moment to moment, second to second. In that way, I aim each of my photographs to be a love letter to the world. Each one depicts a life dripping in romance, seduction, melancholy, fear and hope. As the life around us deteriorates with the passage of time, this emotion is the one constant through our lives. Why should I photograph anything less?”
Cody Bratt is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley with a rhetoric degree emphasizing in narrative and image. |
ORANGE COUNTY
Winner of UnScene Photography Tour and 944 Magazine Seven-City Tour Stop:
Christian Kiely
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Photographer Statement:
"I am a self-taught photographer, who began learning photographic technique by shooting B&W 35mm film and processing myself. Once I began to get a handle on proper exposure, the next steps were to move onto color transparencies (slides) and improve my composition. It was those two steps that really began to shape my style ... I became quite drawn to the bold colors of films like Fuji Velvia, but only when the scenery was there to match it. That began to draw me into National Parks, State Parks and other protected lands where the landscapes were untouched and the images that I captured began to convey a message. A chain reaction started that drew me to more distant locations and forced me to hone my technique even more. In 2004, I made the transition from film based to digital photography and I've never looked back.
This year, my work is on display at the Festival of Arts (Laguna Beach, CA), one of the ‘Top 10 Art Shows in America’ (as voted by the readers of American Style). My work has also been shown in two exhibitions at the Irvine Fine Arts Center (Irvine, CA), and I recently won first place in the Professional Photography / Seascape class in the Orange County Fair (Costa Mesa, CA)."
Christian Kiely, 34, was born and raised in New York City and suburbs. BA in Geographic Information Systems from SUNY Albany ('95). He moved to the OC in 2004 and currently resides in Mission Viejo, CA. |
LAS VEGAS
Winner of UnScene Photography Tour and 944 Magazine Seven-City Tour Stop:
Brendan Steele
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Photographer Statement:
The images in the Pleasant Ville series were shot in color and converted to black-and-white to portray a sense of old Vegas. The images were shot over the course of two years from 2006 until its completion in early 2008.
I wanted to show Las Vegas in a timeless window, a window you might look through and remember Bugsy Siegel, Howard Hughes, Benny Binion, Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack.
I composed these images to illustrate a scene reminiscent of an era, when the streets were wild with adventure and the buildings housed the famous and the infamous.
The Pleasant Ville series aims to give the viewer a sense of what it might have been like to experience this marvelous city in a time of history in the making. A time when outlaws and entertainers looked to the city and its residence with a grand appreciation for what everyone was embarking upon, and that was simply a good time.
Born and raised in San Diego, Calif., Brendan Steele, is a self-taught photographer and skilled chef by trade.
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