AP Artist Spotlight: Lily Yandell

Art was my first love. As a young girl, I did all the drawing, doodling, painting, and crafting that my little hands could manage. We even turned part of my father’s office into an “art room” for my brother and I to learn to create. As I have grown older, photography has become my art form of choice since. I remember bringing my iPod Touch on road trips in lower and middle school, using the corny filters that the apps of the time had to offer. I enjoyed playing artists. Little did I know that today, I would be writing an artist statement about my work for an AP Art Show.

I call my body of work Facades of the Self. In my series of self portraits, I have dressed up as different characters that are loosely based on adaptations of my personality. In costume, I express different emotions and try to create visually interesting situations that have a story behind them. Perhaps a character waiting to be written about or telling her own narrative with her eyes. Each portrait is stylistically different and ranges a lot in what I wear and how I express myself. 

All of my portraits were shot on a Hasselblad medium format film camera. Some are in color, while others are in black and white, creating a fun variety to the body of work. Printing in the darkroom and taking pictures on a manual film camera are both very difficult yet satisfying.

I lost more rolls of film this year to the tedious process and tiny mistakes than I would like to admit. But I believe that this process helps to discipline myself, and to be more careful in my artwork. 

As far as the pictures themselves, I like to let them speak for themselves. After all, this is photography, and visual art must tell its own story.