THE WEIGHT OF AN IMAGE:
GABE WILLIAMS ON IDENTITY IN ART
Gabe walks into the room for our interview with a smile on his face. He’s quick to offer a wave and even quicker to let out a laugh. Conversation flows easily despite his initial nerves. It’s his senior year as a Photography major. He has a very busy schedule between classes and his work as a teaching assistant and darkroom technician on campus. We talk a bit about the struggles of senior year, but it is made very clear to me that Gabe is handling the stress well, considering how much he’s doing.
Art is intrinsic to Gabe’s identity. He says, “Creation is an integral element of my identity that has been with me since the beginning. I’m lucky enough to call it my vocation.” Much of Gabe’s photography is focused on themes of identity. He tells me how much COVID-19 shaped his art. He describes that time as pivotal for the artist he became, saying “My only model was myself.” He feels that time allowed him to view his feelings of isolation in a broader context. The isolation of the pandemic prompted an interest in representing isolation within his photography. He says, “There was this unifying factor that allowed me to see a glimpse of it in others as well as myself” in a way he hadn’t been able to before. The shift the pandemic created has left a lasting imprint on his work as he continues to explore overarching isolation.
I asked him to tell me more about his work. Gabe is very interested in the historical processes of photography. He describes them as the “building blocks of photography today.” He uses a variety of historical processes from wet-plate collodion, an early photography technique created in 1851, to digital photography. He believes understanding the building blocks and history of photography allows for a higher level of experimentation and understanding “as both artist and photographer.” We joked about the large gap between our creative mediums, yet the desire and call to create was one we shared.
Gabe has several goals after graduation, including a desire to teach. This was no surprise, considering his jobs as a TA and darkroom technician. Gabe wants to share ideas and help other people find their voice. Through the art program here at Anderson University, he discovered how to articulate what he was conveying. Gabe has a clear love and respect for all he’s learned throughout his time here. His various teachers have taught him how to be more vulnerable within his work and truly pushed his technique to the fullest. He feels they’ve helped him find a path for his future where he’ll be able to help others “further their artistic voice” the way they have helped him.
Gabe described his creative process as “subtractive.” When I asked him to explain, he said it was “almost as though you are chiseling out a statue from stone.” There is a process undertaken in the very attempt. He considers his process subtractive for the way he navigates what he shows and what he hides in an image. He’s able to “take details, distort reality, and create narratives” through the process of choosing what to focus on versus what to leave out. He doesn’t stop until he feels he’s said what he needs to say.
