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Photographic Explorations of Culture, Landscape and Myth in Iceland

Saturday, October 29 - 11:15AM to 12:00PM

Photography cannot live in the vacuum. It feeds on experiences, connections, curiosity, and explorations. We have to be ready to explore the world in order to find ourselves. As both artists and educators we have a dual responsibility - to explore the world and challenge ourselves, and at the same time to use our experiences as artists to pave the road to future discoveries for our students.


This lecture will explore two parts - artistic and educational. It describes the journey of how my personal photography project grew into an award winning on-location class for my students in Iceland.

Born and raised in Macedonia, I came to the US as a teenager. Since I moved, I have always felt that I've had two homes. Two lives, but one biography. The year 2014 marked an important midpoint in my life. The number of years I have lived in the US equaled to the number of years I have lived in Macedonia before I moved. This realization made me examine my identity and how location connects to memory, nostalgia and the sense of belonging. As part of my creative process, I conducted geographical research and I found out that the exact midpoint between my hometown in Macedonia and my home in the US is the town of Grindavík in Iceland. After finding this, I made a pilgrimage to Iceland - the place that geographically symbolizes my internal duality.


My journey to Iceland started as Artist in Residence in 2014 and 2015, continued to the creation of the Photographic Explorations of Culture, Landscape and Myth in Iceland class. In 2015 this class received the 2015-2016 SUNY Chancellor's Grant for Innovative Study Abroad Program. In June 2016 this class became a reality - my students got a unique opportunity to find their own voices in Iceland.

speaker

Jasna Bogdanovska
Jasna Bogdanovska

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