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Justin
Schmitz |
| GARDENfresh is pleased to launch it's West Loop location with photographer Justin Schmitz. Justin earned his BFA with an emphasis on photography from Columbia College Chicago. He currently works at Columbia College's Digital Photography Lab and teaches digital imaging at the Marwen Foundation. He has been awarded the Union League Civic and Arts Foundation Scholarship, Weisman Memorial Scholarship, and best in show at the 11th annual Hokin Honors Show. A collection of his nightscape photographs have been included in the 6x6 book series Sites published by Columbia College. His current work focuses on high school wrestlers. | |
| This series of photographs is a study of high school boys who wrestle on their school's squad. I am interested in studying what type of boy chooses to wrestle as a way to define who they are as a young man. Competitive athletics represents a highly structured and ritualized presence in many young boys lives. Belonging to a team helps boys develop an identity and provides a peer-group with similar interests. Belonging to an athletic team can build self-esteem as well as physical fitness. Unlike most sports that emphasis the team, wrestlers are sent on their own to face their opponents. Few sports pit lone boy against lone boy in such a physical manner. Winning is based on the one boys physical submission to the other. This intensifies the mental and emotional effect the outcome has on a wrestler. The strength and power each boy exudes is contrasted with their still developing bodies and childlike faces. The posturing that must be done to intimidate an opponent coupled with the innocence of adolescent. This work is meant to examine both the confidence and the awkwardness that each boy exudes. | |