ARTIST STATEMENT
My name is Sofie Rossman and I currently finishing my third year at Pitzer College in Los Angeles, California. I am currently getting a BS in Biophysics, but have had a lifelong passion for art and use this website to document any personal or academic projects of mine in a portfolio.
My art practice is centered around photography and mixed media manipulation of photographs. My portrait photography incorporates the concept of the ‘female gaze’, turning things that when viewed through a patriarchal lense can be conceived as weakness into images of strength. The female gaze is a term describing art attempting to go against the omni-present 'male gaze.' Some of my subject matter ranges from women crying, a young child, self image, and even the color pink, all of which are traditionally delicate through the male gaze, However my representation subverts these perspectives, instead presenting women as confident and powerful, even when in the midst of grief. My mixed media manipulation is focused on landscape photographs. I use embroidery and painting to attempt to pull the locations’ larger-than-life nature into my art, carrying the subject matter off the page.
Materials take an active role in my photography. I have come to love the materiality of the photographic process whether using the camera, computer, found objects, or other art materials. In some of my works I have chosen to cover my lens with colored plastic, create projections, or use pieces of glass or fabric to convey a deeper meaning. In my mixed media work, I am taking this love of materiality one step further by using it as the central element in my work as a way to extend the landscape off the boundaries of the photograph. I am working on manipulating and sculpting the painting extensions of my photographs, as well as using embroidery and knitting and weaving to extend the embroidery off the page. When I am able to direct my subject, I devote time to thinking about how they should pose to further emphasize the concept.