Northeastern University Bachelor’s Art & Photography Minor - final thesis

(scroll to the bottom if you want to skip the story and get to the pictures)

This is not really one of my “books”, of course, but since I do have a printed versions of all these images, I think this is the right place for it.

I attended Northeastern University in Boston, Massechusetts from 1983 to 1988, with my major in Computer Science.

I started photography as a hobby in high school, following in the footsteps of my older brother and an uncle, so when Northeastern introduced a class in photography, I think I may have been one of the first to sign up.

When it came time to choose a minor area of study, I didn’t feel attracted to the subjects my fellow students were choosing. Marketing, Business, Education… nothing appealed to me.

Eventually, I asked if I could minor in Photography. This was a bit of a puzzle for my advisors. The photography program was new and they did not have many classes yet, plus no one had ever chosen it as a minor, especially not someone in such a technical major.

After consideration, they offered a combined Art & Photography minor. This meant I took some drawing classes (which I also loved), some history classes (focused on both art and photography), and every photography class they offered.

I loved it.

Don’t get me wrong, computers at the time were also a huge passion for me. But while I had pictured myself working professionally with computers since 6th grade (it was my “when I grow up” answer from 6th grade on), drawing and photography were entirely selfish, indulgent pursuits.

I quickly managed to install myself in the photo lab at the school in a work/study job. Most of my time from that point on was spent either in the computer lab or the photo lab.

For my final photography class, Northeastern brought in a guest instructor from Harvard.

She told the class on the first day that we would need to choose a thesis and we would spend much of the course on that thesis.

Once again, I didn’t feel attracted to any of the subjects my fellow students were choosing. I knew immediately what I wanted to do, and the professor had actually shown art nudes in the class and treated the subject with respect, so I thought it might be possible. But this was conservative USA in the 80’s. I wasn’t sure if I’d be allowed.

Still, optimist that I was, I asked a couple of ex-girl friends that I was still friends with if they would be willing to pose and they agreed in principle. But I didn’t want to just take pictures of women. I felt it was unfair that nudes of women were considered “art” but nudes of men were considered “pornography” (I actually read this in a book discussing the art nude). So I lined up two male friends who were willing to pose as well.

When the day came for the professor to walk through the class asking us discreetly what our thesis topic would be, I said, “I’d like to do nudes.”

She immediately pulled almost imperceptibly back and got a pained look on her face.

“This is it,” I thought. “She’s going to say no. I wish I had a backup plan.”

She shook her head and said with a reluctant sigh, “YOU are going to have to take SO many pictures. You had better get started right away.”

Then she moved on to the next student and I felt a mixture of shock, joy, and nervousness.

Then… three weeks passed and none of my potential models had time to meet with me. Remembering her advice I was growing increasingly panicked when, one day, walking home across the park, a thought struck me.

“Wait a minute! I have a body…”

I went home and took my first nudes. Nude self-portraits.

Back then, this was no easy task. I had a short cable release and tripod, but I’m not sure the camera even had a timer. This meant I had to be very close to the camera and framing was raw guess work.

Still, I managed and shot a roll that day.

Developing the pictures, remember, was a public activity for me, since the photo lab was always crowded with other students.

There were quite a few people glancing over my shoulders as I developed, printed, adjusted, re-printed, and re-printed again.

My professor, when she saw these first images, did a double take and, smiling to herself, said, “You know, when you said you wanted to do nudes, I assumed you would be taking pictures of women!”

Once, a female student looking at one of the images said, “Is that you?”

“Yes,” I answered a bit shyly.

"You’re more muscular than you look,” she offered.

“Yea, I hide it well,” was all I could think to say back.

Once I finally managed to meet with my originally planned models and people started seeing bodies other than my own, one of the female students in the class asked, “So why haven’t you asked me to pose for you?”

She became an additional model for me. That was a bit of a learning lesson. I’m pretty naive, and I had limited understanding of what might motivate her. While I felt like we got some great images, I did not do much to make her comfortable (I probably wasn’t all that comfortable myself). While she let me use the pictures, she expressed disappointment in how I “made her look”. I think her disappointment contributed to my avoiding nudes again for such a long time afterwards.

As the project progressed, my professor seemed increasingly impressed. At one point, looking over the work I had completed so far, she asked, “And you want to work in business? Why don’t you want to go into art?”

“Well, you’ve never seen me code.” I’m not sure I actually said it, but I remember thinking it.

I appreciated her implicit compliment, but for me, attempting to make a living through art felt as doable as sprouting gills and living underwater. Not just impossible, unwise. I think I knew then that the financial realities I would face would sap all the joy out of making art. I knew I could earn a comfortable living with my computer skills, so that was the path I wholeheartedly followed.

A few of the images below are of me, you can see exactly which in the Self Portraits page.

Most of the images below were included in my thesis.

A few of the images below are of a model that I didn’t manage to shoot before deadline, but shot afterwards because she still wanted to pose for me (always an offer I can’t, and have no desire to, refuse).