Libby O’Connor Artist of The Week Q&A

Senior Libby O’Connor had a photograph displayed in a high school competition hosted by Drexel University in Philadelphia on Feb. 10. She first became focused on photography during the second semester of her junior year, and she is currently in three art classes, including Art Portfolio.

What sort of photography do you focus on?

I focus on portrait photography, so I do a lot of pictures of people and staging photoshoots. A lot of them involve nature, so I focus on that a lot.

What is the process of making a piece of art?

I have to come up with an idea and then find a good place to shoot it, with good lighting and whatever I need to use for the shoot. I have to find models for it and I have to pick their outfits. I kind of go through everything that has to be a part of the shoot, so I go through all of that and I buy any sort of supplies I need, so props and clothes. For shooting, the biggest thing I’ve been focusing on is lighting because that’s kind of a difficult part to get right for photographs, but it’s got to be good for the pictures to turn out well. Then editing is just going back and changing things I didn’t really like from the original photographs.

How did you become interested in photography?

My sister became a photo major at her college and she kind of encouraged me to get into it, and I got my own film camera and started experimenting with that. It just kind of clicked and I just fell in love with it. I started coming up with ideas for photoshoots and playing around with my friends modeling for me, and it’s just kind of grown from there.

Could you tell me about the competition you were involved in at Drexel University?

I just entered a few pictures, not really expecting much, because no one from East really wins, so I just entered a few on a whim, because Mr. Finkelston suggested I enter. I actually didn’t know I got into it until he emailed me and told me I got in. I didn’t actually end up placing, but I got to display my picture in a show there.

What did you submit?

It’s a picture of my friend Annabelle and she’s got flowers covering her face – there’s a really big version of it outside the art hall if you’re ever on the second floor. She’s in a natural setting and she’s got flowers all over her face. It kind of blocks out her identity, but it was an interesting shoot and I like it a lot. It was really different from anything I’ve done before. It seems like my skills were really improving with that shoot.

What usually inspires your art pieces?

I’m inspired a lot by the people I use in the shoots, so with my friend Annabelle who’s in that shoot, she’s a very lighthearted and fun person, so I picked light colors and flowers to go on her face. When I was editing later I brightened it a bit. I try to incorporate some of the person I’m shooting into the pictures to make them more personal.

How often do you have photoshoots scheduled?

I take pictures every day, but I do these bigger shoots probably once every two or three weeks. I’m in three different art classes every day, so I have to be doing a lot of different stuff to keep up with them, but I do bigger shoots whenever I can.

Do you plan on pursuing a career in photography?

I think I’ll always be interested in photography, but I think I’m going to focus more on design and whether that’s clothing design or industrial design, I think I’m going to move toward that as a career, rather than photography. I think the things I’ve learned from photography will help me a lot in that. I have an eye for the things I like now, like color, and how things look in photographs, I can think about that when I’m designing something. I can think about how that will look to other people – what will look good and what won’t.