I was recently introduced to Philip Lorcia diCorcia's work  and he is definitely a photographer I want to become more familiar with. I really can relate to the way he sets up his photographs with his family and friends, rather than making them with a stranger. It's not that I don't appreciate the way Diane Arbus is able to make such a powerful photograph by becoming comfortable with strangers, because I am so drawn to her work. Her photographs hold such power, while Philip Lorcia diCorcia's work is very magical. Although photographing strangers is something I definitely think I should become more comfortable with, I love working with people I am close with, and I love staging my photographs. I love the way diCorcia sets up a situation with his familiar subject to make it look like he is photographing a stranger. I never really thought about photographing family and friends this way and I really think it might answer a lot of problems I've been running into lately.  I feel like since I am using people that I'm familiar it almost looks too staged, but I am staging my photographs, and I am using people that I know really well. I'm often having a hard time staging them in a way that it doesn't looked too staged. I've been interested in setting up situations to portray what someone might be feeling internally but in a dreamy fantastical way, and I think that diCorcia's work is exactly that. Philip Lorcia diCorcia works with documentary photography in a theatrical way. I want combine the the psychological and theatrical by fact and fiction. I think he does this in such a way that it's almost impossible to tell that it's set up. I think that he just directs his subject to express the right amount of emotion for the setting he places them in.  Looking at diCorcia's work has made me more aware of the connection between subject and location when it comes to setting up a photograph and I know that my understanding will only develop more as I become more familiar with him. I definitely want to pick my locations more consciously and carefully.

I can really appreciate the way diCorcia combines the formal and conceptual aspects of photographing. I've also been inspired by Diane Arbus for a good amount of time now, and I have felt that all this time, I've been attempting to capture the same power as she does, but I need to apply her power, in my own style. The point of becoming accustomed with well known photographers isn't to adopt their style, it's to be inspired by it. It's to look at multiple artists, their photographs, understand them, see how they think, and take what we get from their work and applying it to our own. Recently, I've found a few photographers, including diCorcia's work, that have recently changed my way of thinking about photography and have helped me better understand the problems I've been facing as an artist.  I don't have to photograph strangers just because I'm drawn to Arbus' work. I'm allowed to stage my photographs and there is nothing wrong with that, as long as I'm convincing. Since I've been here at Purchase, I've gotten this feeling that staging my photographs was wrong. I don't know if that's because last year I felt very disconnected to my teacher or our styles were completely different, but she gave me the impression that photographing people I'm close with and people that are my age is frowned upon.
I felt maybe she didn't understand what I was trying to do or where I was coming from, but the point of art is to expressing yourself by understanding and giving your view on a situation. I felt like my point of view was wrong because I was staging my photographs, so I thought "she's my teacher so she must be right", but maybe I wasn't expressing it in a convincing way or maybe we just didn't see eye to eye. Maybe I need to be more convincing with what I am trying to express. Philip Lorcia diCorcia opened up a light that I'm allowed to do whatever I want as a photographer, as long as I make it as compelling as possible.