Fine arts photographer crosses over, fashionably


Jordan Tiberio faces a type of conundrum not unfamiliar to students who fully explore their craft: “I won a fashion shooting contest, but I’m a fine arts photographer,” says the recent winner of the Western Digital (WD) Fashion Walk. “I’m used to taking things from memories and my past and recreating them in an artistic manner. I’m more into fine arts than fashion. But the contest sounded like a cool concept,” she said.

Winning photo: Jordan Tiberio

The Fashion Walk competition took place along the High Line and was overseen and judged by WD’s “creative master,” photographer Bruce Dorn. The setup consisted of four groups, with two photographers, a fashion designer and model in each.

“It was this big FIT collaboration,” said Tiberio. “FIT makes you try everything and pushes your comfort zone.  It gave me more confidence.  I like staging stuff and making things up. You don’t know if you like something until you try it.”

Within a 40 minute time frame and a four block radius, participants worked on their creative concepts. “I used a lot of special affects filters on my lens. I cover my lens with scarves or crystals to create ethereal images. I picked up the techniques on my own,” said Tiberio. “We found an area wrapped in mesh material. I had [the model] crawl underneath the mesh and then stand up behind it.”

Photo: Jordan Tiberio

“We like to create challenges that require students to think outside their discipline,” says Associate Dean Sass Brown, who with photography professor Curtis Willocks, helped organize the competition.

“People have different approaches. I threw Jordan in there to mix things up,” said Willocks. “She used filters that people haven’t used for 10 to 15 years. She took an old process and did something different with it. She created [the image] in camera–She didn’t have to use any post production. There it was in the camera. Bang!”

Photo: Jordan Tiberio

Tiberio grew up in Rochester, NY, an area steeped both in photography history and in fine arts.  “We went to the George Eastman (founder of Kodak) House every year in elementary school. We have the Memorial Art Gallery. My mom’s mother was an art teacher and my grandmother was a really good artist.”

“I tried to not make my work look like the High Line or the city. I used a lot of special affect filters on my lens. I just picked the techniques on  my own. So that’s what I brought. It was the one that won the contest. ”

A day with Bruce Dorn, the “relentless pursuer of beauty,” and Curtis Willocks the “teacher’s teacher,” Jordan’s the winner.

 

 

photos provided by Jordan Tiberio

 


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