Current Studio Art Senior Dylan Haefner was invited to present photos as part of the Review Santa Fe Symposium last month, where he met with curators and publishers. Haefner's projects look at a series of losses that unfolded over the past year and how growing older has shifted the way he understands them. His work from the symposium can be found here.
Here's what Dylan had to say about his work and the symposium:
"My practice lives in the in between, where people and place tangle and where connection and isolation trade meaning. I photograph landscapes, objects, and small rituals to map how identity hides in trees, chairs, fruit, and gestures that usually go unnoticed. I keep returning to the free side of Barton Springs where a fence separates two worlds, my grandparents’ home rearranged after loss and pears with their layered meanings. In Mandarin, a pear sounds like separation. In myth it is tied to fertility and marriage. In English it becomes pair and pare. That mix of comfort and fracture, desire and distance, sits at the center of my work.
Meeting with other likeminded individuals through reviews helps soften the disconnect I experience firsthand and reminds me how meaningful shared moments through the lens can be, regardless of age."