During the time of year when people visit friends and family, Art major Rebekah Casagrande took people back to times when they visited grandma’s house with her photography series now displayed in the art gallery on campus. Casagrande remembers her own grandmother, who passed away in May, in this project.
“The vibrant house is now sulky: it does not feel the same,” Casagrande said in her artist statement. “There is emptiness, a loss, and a lack of warmth in the environment. Everything is the same as she left it, except she is not there to take care of it.”
Casagrande spent seven months taking photos of her grandmother’s house, collecting hundreds of photos. She then had to decide which ones she would edit and use for her project.
“I took the photos in three different trips to my grandmothers, alternating between 35mm film and digital camera,” said Casagrande. “I went through hundreds just to get the right ones in my show. The 24 chosen were lightly edited with Photoshop, typically only changing brightness, contrast, and color.”
The purpose of this project was to connect her viewers to the photos and remind them of their own times visiting their grandparents.
“In some way, their house is embodied in my photographs,” she stated. “I want to encourage you to pause and remember.”
For this project, Casagrande said she was inspired by multiple artists and how they display emotions and memories to make this project including Ian Howorth, Sally Mann and Graciela Iturbide. She has always had a passion for photography since she was in grade school. She continues to use that passion to tell stories like “Grandmother’s House.”
“Photography has been my hobby ever since I got a disposable film camera for my third grade field trip,” she said. “It changed from a hobby to a career path my senior year of highschool.”
Before she transferred to Samford in 2017, she attended community college and received her certification in imaging and photography. She will graduate and receive her Bachelors Dec. 13. Casagrande says that she has had a lot of opportunities while she has attended Samford.
“Samford expanded what I would have considered an art career,” Casagrande said. “There are so many more opportunities than I would have imagined.”
