Portraits of an honest youth

Typically most child portraits display kids who simply smile and look at the camera, but not in the current student exhibition on campus titled Youth: Portraits of Identity and Expression by senior photography major Jessica Bardales.

“As I snap shots, [it’s] all about making a connection with the person I am photographing,” Bardales said. “Taking the time to get to know that person reveals their true feelings.”

In the exhibit there are 10 photographs of children and adolescents who stare directly into viewers’ eyes expressing sincere and heartfelt emotions. Bardales reflects the identity of close friends and siblings through dramatic images.

Her photographs show viewers that kids are raised differently and reveal how society and gender roles are affected by their upbringing.

Bardales often talks to the children and adolescents as she takes each photograph; she said photographs can be powerful based on their gestures, posture and poses.

“The way that they are dressed and their domestic space is important,” Bardales said. “How it is organized says a lot about the individual.”

Normally, child portraits are playful and innocent, but in Bardales’ portraits, the child or adolescent is maturely looking into the camera expressing their genuine emotions.

Bardales said she feels that “smiling is artificial.” When viewers are confronted by honesty, it makes them question what they’re looking at, Bardales said.

“It is not just about the portrait of them for me,” Bardales said. “It is about their experience in this world.  Through photography I am able to build relationships and then share that experience with viewers.”

She said her photographs would be better if they were complemented by voice recordings.

“Having an audio voice for each of them would really add to the experience [for the audience] to not only see, but also hear the children expressing their own voice,” Bardales said.

However, Bardales chose not to literally write a statement about her photographs.

“I didn’t write a statement on purpose,” Bardales said. “Everyone that sees these photographs is going to have different ideas on what they’re representing based on their own childhood experience.”

Bardales’s intention is for viewers to perceive each photograph uniquely.

“Youth culture tells us so much about society. I wonder what viewers ask themselves when they interact with the work,” Bardales said.

This is Bardales’s last semester at CSULB. She will be graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, in photography. This is her first solo photography exhibition.

Youth: Portraits of Identity and Expression will be on display at the Fine Arts building in the Max L. Gatov Gallery East until Thursday.