Our Favorite Student Photographers: Amanda Haycook School of Visual Arts, New York City
Amanda Haycook
School of Visual Arts, New York City
Last year, as a freshman, Amanda Haycook found herself taking pictures of buildings. “It wasn’t a conscious decision at first,” she says, “it was just like my eye kept going there.” Not so with others on the streets: “Living in New York I noticed that people don’t look up, and I just started noticing things that people weren’t paying attention to.”
A photography major in the BFA program at SVA, she’s made architectural photography her focus, and has recently become interested in using reflections to capture the feature of fluidity on rigid structures. She has also created a series of skyline images—not horizontal New York City skylines, but literal sky lines in which lines of sky abut the lines of buildings in vertical images. She especially likes to shoot on days when there are a lot of clouds and vantage points and changes in the light reveal interesting reflections.
A career in architectural photography is her goal. “If I could dream big, I’d love to shoot for Architectural Digest,” she says, and she’s made a practical start on that dream. “I’ve recently been working for a real estate investment company that acquires and renovates buildings. They want me to document the process from their acquisition of the property through the renovation, which I’m finding keeps the original integrity of the building.” She knows how lucky she is to have found that job. “I’ve always been very passionate about shooting what I’m interested in, so what I’m doing doesn’t feel like work.”
Amanda Haycook was recommended by Seth P. Greenwald, an instructor at the School of Visual Arts. If you are a teacher, professor, or instructor and know of a student whose work deserves recognition, contact our editorial department by e-mail at: editorial@shutterbug.com.
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