Tara Tayan

Tara Tayan is originally from Springfield PA, just outside of the city. While interested in photography since high school, music was her original passion. Artistic both visually and musically, she decided upon photography when she realized she wanted to surround herself with art, photography and other artistic people. 

Tara  is well-known in the department for her dream-like and often very experimental work. While her work is based in photographic media, they transcend barriers and begin to meld with painting. Her images often combine the human with nature or texture. Above all, their beauty is haunting. I sat with her and tried to figure out where such inspiration and vision comes from.

Pick one word to describe your work. 

Surreal. I like to have the ambiguity and dreamlike quality to my images.

When did you first find an interest in photography and when did you decide you wanted to pursue it seriously?

I took my first photography class when I was a freshman in high school. At the time I didn’t even think of going to art school. I wanted to pursue music. And even when I was applying I wanted to look at schools that had a good music program. I was in band up until my freshman year of college playing the alto saxophone. But at that point I realized that I wanted to surround myself with art, photography, and artful people.

You said your senior work (at least last what I saw of the skin painted white) was an old idea revisited. How has it evolved?

I started this work my senior year of high school when I painted my friends and family. I referenced a painter named Arcimboldo, who did these paintings of faces that were made up of fruits or wheat. The photographs I did were of the seasons. Each person would be painted a different color scheme and they would have similar colored flowers or leaves to accentuate the season. I wanted to play with the face blending into these elements and coming forward towards the viewer. 

When I started doing the white forms (painted white forms) I saw this as a new outlet to play with paint, something that I had worked with before to give the photograph a different look.

Who's work inspires you and why? Also, what inspires you?

I have just recently found the work of Alex Prager, who does these photographs of these women in absurd, weird positions, so they look like dolls. I love the color in these photographs as well. I am also inspired by Polixeni Papapetrou. This photographer deals with issues of identity within contemporary culture through themes of childhood. I love when I read about these cool ideas. Sometimes its nothing what I expected when I actually come to look at the photographs. Papapetrou photographs are interesting because they are surreal. I am also interested by Jane Burton’s work, who does many of these poetic, monochromatic images. These images are interesting because they are a similar take on what I am doing. 

I love looking at surrealist artist, my favorite being Magritte. The idea of their lucid dreams being their inspiration is so weird and abstract. I love that sometimes the images can make sense and some just don’t. 

I am inspired by natural objects, watercolors, and collections. I love having many objects that are all different in their own way.

A lot of your work has a very painterly aspect to it. Can you describe the your combination of process and photography? Do you shoot pictures with a preconceived idea of how you want them to look or do you work more intuitively?

I love other media especially watercolors and fibers (dying). I like the flowy and watery look to these mediums. Much like the processes that I enjoy in photography they are unplanned and have unexpected results. They are all mediums where I can take a little bit of a chance and have less control because if it doesn’t work… oh well. My mom always taught me how to make mistakes work so I figure something has to come out.

I like to shoot intuitively. I have an idea somewhat of how the photos will come out, but I think that it’s more exciting and fun when you have no idea what you’re shooting. It’s somewhat freeing.

Where do you see your work going in the future? Are there any ideas you want to explore or techniques you want to try?

I see myself trying new alternative processes. I would like to explore more with liquid light, gum printing, and more processes that I have yet to try and work with. 

As for the white forms I feel that they can be explored in a new way, I think I would like to move on to others. I would like to have multiples white forms in the frame. I think that would change the context of the image.

Reviewed and written by Heather Lewis.