Untitled (Roxy) by Spring HS Kelly Shimoda

Kelly Shimoda
Currently residing in Brooklyn, NY

website: http://www.kellyshimoda.com

Work Statement
I capture images to feed my obsession with the intricacies of human behavior. I am fascinated by the way that humans interact with their environments: how they construct spaces for themselves and others, how they move through those spaces, and how those spaces become reflections of their inhabitants. Through both still and moving images, I examine encounters, moments, and arrangements of objects that reveal patterns in our collective actions, and insight into our collective psychology. I am interested in finding and sharing images that resonate with viewers emotionally, such that they might feel more connected to the world, or gain a deeper level of awareness about themselves and their surroundings. I want to challenge people to slow down, reflect, and hopefully gain some degree of introspection.

Bio
I grew up in Connecticut, and got my first camera - a Kodak disc - in elementary school. Though it wasn't until I was living in Barcelona in 2000 that I picked up a camera more seriously. I loved the life there and started taking a picture a day to be able to remember it all, which propelled me to think about photography more seriously. The consistency of thinking about and looking for images hiding in the everyday helped me to translate the way I see in my head onto film. I also discovered that the camera was a way to ask strangers questions, which satisfied a lot of my curiosities. It took me a few more years before I quit my corporate job and made the leap.

I completed the ICP's Certificate Program in Documentary Photography/Photojournalism in 2005 and co-founded the photo collective/agency, Veras Images (www.verasimages.com). I have since been published in the New York Times and Le Monde 2, among others. In 2006, I received an Honorable Mention in The Magenta Foundation's Emerging Photographers competition, was selected for the Soho Photo Gallery's National Competition Exhibition. This past February I received a Johnson & Johnson Photography Fellowship to shoot in Latin America.

Prior to ICP, I spent six years in international education and communications. Before that I graduated from Brown University with a BA in Latin American Studies and American Civilization. I currently live in Brooklyn and am 31.