Turning eighteen in six months, the idea of adulthood has always been intimidating to me. With the pandemic taking away the past two years of our lives, I have progressively felt more distanced from my youth. After living the majority of this time away from the city, spending significant time with extended family, I returned to the apartment I grew up in this past September. Unsettled with the unfamiliarity in the space I once found comfort in, I decided to dedicate my photographic practice to my memory of my fleeting childhood. Delving deep into myself, I attempted to create an image of the world I used to inhabit through these images. Using a digital camera from my youth, I utilized the intricacies of my childhood bedroom to recreate these dated emotions. The warm tones of the photographs are used to reflect my happiness, confidence, and naivete of the time which differs from the self aware, at times insecure, current Sophia. Similarly, the blur represents the distance I felt from this familiar space, filled with family photos and souvenirs collected from a pre-distanced world. Recognizable ephemera from my youth litter this expanse. Although I am comforted by my personal nostalgic vision, I need to recognize the quickly approaching next chapter of my life. My project is a reflection of my first seventeen and a half years, ready to let go and take flight.
Sophia Fodor is a creative from New York City of Colombian and Hungarian descent. She has been exposed to art and media from a young age by her parents and other close relatives. Always fascinated by the camera, Sophia began experimenting with both analog and digital photography at the age of ten and eventually became a part of the Teen Academy program at the International Center of Photography. Now a junior at Grace Church School, she has utilized classes in printmaking, painting, and sculpture to add to her photographic vision. She is influenced by the cinematic and intimate universes of the paintings of Niki de Saint-Phalle and Leonora Carrington, the photographs of Elinor Carucci and Sophie Calle, and the writing of Valeria Luiselli and Ariana Harwisz. Recently, she interned with the New Museum and the Whitney Museum of American Art, and holds an editorial role at Ephemera, her school’s art and literary magazine. She is the recipient of a Silver Key among other achievements from the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Sophia hopes to continue to be utilizing her familial archives and various mediums in her work.