Me, Myself and Eye

ONLINE PRESENTATION

Me, Myself and Eye Home   //  Leslie Elsasser - Introduction   //  Selina Roman - Mind Currents   //  Michael Ball   //  TC Bryant   //  Larry Busby   //  David Canaday   //  Michael Congdon   //  Brandie Dziegiel   //  Loretta Fields   //  Jeaniel Image   //  Douglas Eric Jordan   //  Valerie Larson   //  John Leduc   //  Jason Lind   //  Mikko Maki   //  Alex Martinez   //  Matias   //  Noemys McConnell   //  Megan O’Connell   //  Robert Ortega   //  Adaina Plaza   //  Pat Randall   //  Heather Rivera   //  RaeAnne Swanson   //  Michael Webb

MICHAEL BALL - US MARINES & US AIR FORCE

Lake Ann 

I have always been interested in photography, especially images of architecture and landscapes. I traveled a lot in the military and continue to travel with my family. Travel offers opportunities to discover and photograph architectural and natural wonders. When our family returns from a trip, my wife, myself, and two stepsons have a friendly competition. We compete for the “best photograph” as a memory of our trip. The winner of this familial competition prints their enlarged image on canvas and the photograph is proudly placed on our travelogue wall. 

I took Breaking Barriers to learn new techniques, hoping to improve my travel photographs. However, the theme of this year’s workshop was self portraiture. Self-portraiture was completely out of my comfort zone. Consequently, I experimented with ways of taking self-portraits in which I was not the apparent subject. 

One steamy hot summer day in northern Virginia, I visited Lake Ann. While crossing a footbridge, I leaned over the banister and saw my image fused with the images of the clouds and the trees reflected on the water’s surface. The color of the lake created a monochromatic image that unified the land, sky, and an echo of myself. Suddenly, a droplet of water fell onto the lake and created a ripple of concentric circles that distorted the image. Lake Ann is my distorted self-portrait. Although the photograph looks monochromatic, there is a barely perceivable fluctuation of color that I left as a hint to myself and the clothes that I wore. I hardly edited the photograph. I lightened it slightly to reveal the nuances that almost imperceptibly distinguished one image from another. 

MICHAEL BALL
US MARINES 89-93 & US AIR FORCE 00-13

For more information:
Email Leslie Elsasser at lelsasse@usf.edu
or Ashley Jablonski at danyele@usf.edu

Breaking Barriers 2020 is supported by the James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital, Love IV Lawrence, Hillsborough Arts Council, and the Florida Department of State.