My name is Bao Nguyen and I'm a rising junior photography major. During the summer of 2017, I was an intern for artist/photographer Sheree Hovsepian in New York City. The Fall semester of my sophomore year was a real breakthrough for me as a have a chance to experiment with various darkroom techniques that I have not done before. However, at the same time, I found it a very difficult task for me to prove the work I do whether or not photography at all. The anxiety went with me throughout the spring until I decided to find a mentor who can give me some answer. I found out about Sheree Hovsepian through an exhibition catalog in the library called Photography is Magic, an Aperture exhibition that showed experimental and newer approach to the medium. Sheree's work interested me because of its sculptural elements and experimental darkroom prints. I decided to email her expressing my admiration and asking her if she needed an intern for the summer, luckily she replied my email with an opportunity.
One of the first assignments she gave me was to be free in the darkroom, doing whatever I want, anything, all experimental, no mistake. This was when I can confidently say that my photographic work does not have to have an image fixated. This was when I started to deconstruct the concept of photography as a medium and treat it as such.
I moved to Queens and met Sheree and her husband, renowned artist Rashid Johnson for the first time after the school end. I was surprised that they have a deep background in photography education and now their works totally take different forms and mediums (Sheree has been working with ceramics, bronze sculptures, and fabrics; Rashid has been working with large scale installations and wax paintings). However, the reference to photography as a medium still exists in all of their work.
