Artist and UNC MFA graduate, Ben Alper, spoke about his connection to UNC and delved into the art process of photography with his audience at the Hanes Art Center on Wednesday.
“The MFA program here did a lot for me both as an artist and as a person," he said. "I have a real connection to this place and the role that it had in my life."
Having started his own art book publishing company in 2015, Alper spoke about how he draws inspiration for his photography from daily life. He showed the audience work from his first three projects.
“All of the things that I showed and talked about tonight are successes along the way, but there were a lot of missteps and a lot of frustrations,” said Alper.
The Artist’s Talk was hosted by the Sloane Art Library and was attended by members of the Chapel Hill community, students and staff.
Some students who attended the talk enjoyed Alper’s use of pictures from his projects "Adrift", "A Series of Occurrences" and "a new nothing" to highlight the process of how he creates art. Focusing on "Adrift" in particular, he discussed how he came up with the idea for his project after his scanner malfunctioned to create a unique design out of a photograph.
“I feel like in arts there is a weird façade of like ‘artists have these brilliant ideas and it turns out perfectly.’ That never happens to me. That never happens to anyone,” said junior Jess Woods. “He talks about the process, which is nice.”
Apler photographs ordinary objects and portrays them in a poetic and mysterious way, sometimes by altering the way the objects appear in the photo.
“The topics that he does, like his ‘Adrift,’ is so different, and I feel like finding your own aesthetic is so important. And I like that UNC facilitated that,” said sophomore Danielle Gladstone.
