Mia Casoli

A Self Portrait of Mia

Mia Casoli is on the edge of a new life, one that she's been working towards since she was sixteen. With her thesis show almost complete and with six years of photography training under her belt, Mia is really coming into her own. Looking up to street photographers like Robert Doisneau, Zoe Strauss and Helen Levitt, the influence of these contemporary artists is apparent in Mia's work. She is passionate about film and the darkroom but she knows how to have fun with all kinds of photography from portraiture to events to the street. "Time permitting, I will always shoot film for my personal projects. Color film gives me colors I just can't get with digital, and black and white film is just beautiful. I learned on film, and I'll never forget my first love.The first time I shot a roll of film, and made a print out of one of my negatives, and took a look at it, I realized that I made that happen all by myself. And that gratification I had that day was the reason I fell in love with making photographs." It is perfectly fitting that her first love is her last hurrah at Tyler.

The culmination of her photographic career thus far is her thesis show, 300 Seconds, opening on November 27th, 2012. According to Mia, "In working on my show, I've learned so much about myself as an artist and what I love to do, even what I don't love to do." The five image collection is comprised of extended-exposure large format images. The concept of recording an amount of time spent with another person without video or a large volume of photographs is not a common occurrence in todays age of recording.With direct influences from Ken Ohara, who also creates beautiful extended exposures, Mia is documenting and recording the connection she's making with the sitter of each portrait. The ethereal atmosphere inside these portraits holds five minutes worth of conversation, and of quality time Mia spent with her subjects.

No matter what she pursues post-graduation, Mia Casoli has created an poignant look at human interaction from a photographer's distinct perspective. It is artists like her that we need to remind the world to sit down and really think about our interactions with other people. 

 

Written by Katie Yuen