Paris Visone, a 2008 graduate of The Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University, is the winner of a Getty Images Grant for Editorial Photography, netting $5,000 and editorial support for “Gender Roles and Appearance,” an ongoing project.Visone, who now teaches in AIB’s pre-college program, began “Gender Roles” after discovering shots of family and friends betrayed the subjects’ quiet intentions to meet gender standards, both in appearance and interaction with others. Splitting her time between Boca Raton, Fla. and Boston strengthened the theme.
“Boca’s this sort of flashy, ‘You have to look great everywhere you go’ sort of place,” Visone said. “But then you come to Boston, and that’s going on, but in a different way. I looked back on the photos and I realized what was going on in them, this sort of American image that people try to uphold.”
Getty Images created the grants to “enable photographers to bring attention to significant social and cultural issues, as well as to take new and inspiring strides in creative work.” Judges this year included the director of photography at The New York Times and a senior photo editor at Newsweek. Visone credits AIB with helping her focus and improve “Gender Roles.”
The grant win was announced just as Visone wrapped a six-week tour shooting the rock band Blondie, known for the 1979 hit “Heart of Glass.”
Charged with assembling backstage and live performance shots, as well as video work, Visone was on tour two weeks before feeling like she knew the band well enough to get the shots she wanted.
“When I shoot I have to be really comfortable with the people I’m shooting with, because I’m not an intrusive photographer,” Visone said. “I don’t like shooting people right off the bat.”
“I was psyched because [Blondie singer] Debbie Harry is a photo legend,” Visone said. “Blondie has an extensive photographic history and I am honored to add to it.”
Visone’s photo work appeared in eight 2009 exhibitions and routinely graces the covers of New England-based alternative magazines like The Weekly Dig and Performer Magazine.
“My time at AIB involved a lot of critique and trying to figure out what it was I was actually photographing,” Visone said. “I knew I was shooting what I wanted, and I knew there was a purpose to it all. AIB helped me zero in on exactly what I was doing.”
“Developing your own style is a big point I like to push to my students,” she said. “Shoot all the time. You are developing – pun intended – your eye more and more every photo you take. Photography is like nothing else. Sometimes I feel like a scavenger for moments.”
See more of Paris Visone’s work at her website.
