Student Union

Photos © Jeff Ashbaugh, 2000

Jeff Ashbaugh
St. Louis Community College
St. Louis , Missouri

Currently
Jeff graduated St. Louis Community College in June with an AA degree in Mass Communications and an AFA in Art (Photography option). In August he began the BFA program in photography at Washington University School of Art in St. Louis.

Goal
"After my current studies I want to do an MFA, which is needed to teach."

Processes
"I started with computer-aided drafting before photography. Now I do photography and computer manipulation of images. I love darkroom work, too, because there's stuff you can do in the darkroom you can't do any other way. I think all the processes are merging, and fast. That's why I did two degrees--broadcasting and photography; together they gave me what I wanted."

Combinations
"I've been working with some of the old photographic processes, using the computer to make the negatives. I'll shoot a transparency, scan it and then produce a negative to work with in the darkroom. Or I can take an image from a digital camera, alter it in Photoshop, invert it so it's a negative, and then make a sun print of it. The computer is just another tool."

Influences
"Ansel Adams--when you first get started, he's always there. Sally Mann's new work is really interesting. Also Joyce Tenneson."

Personal Work
"These two images are from a series I started on my own. People often see a picture or a portrait, walk by and think, nice portrait, or nice picture, and they keep moving. I'm trying to get them to stop and think, but what they think is up to them. I don't want to make them think anything in particular. Sometimes I scratch the negatives, or use tissue paper or even wax paper in the enlarger."

Emotional Content
"The man was running in a charity race. He's almost 80 years old, and I was trying to pull out what he was feeling while running. The woman modeled for our class, and the work I did on the photo was inspired by a short story by Gabriel Garcia Marquez called The Incredible and Sad Tale of Innocent Erendira and Her Heartless Grandmother. Whenever you take a picture there's something going on among the photographer, the subject, and the viewer--there's a little triangle of emotions there and I'm trying to get people to think about that."

Jeff Ashbaugh was recommended to us by professor Kim Mosley, art program coordinator and photography coordinator at St. Louis Community College.

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