Writing with Light
Photography by Dara Schwyhart

Photography is a great many things, but fundamentally, it is a form of communication.  It should lay the foundation upon which the viewer can create a story from the image placed before them.  Such a story begins with the eye, as it were; it is then related to the mind and heart.  All of the work you see here holds a story for me, of course; I can recall what kind of day it was and how I was feeling when I captured the image.  But it is my greatest hope that these images might stir something within the imaginations of all who look upon them, so that new stories can continue to be created.

My subject matter is often simple, familiar, and unassuming.  A household object, a local landscape, a tree showing renewed life in springtime.  All of these things have the power to create meaning and evoke memories in our lives, an thankfully, it is the art of photography that allows the beautiful impermanence of the human experience to be somewhat preserved.

Working in the photographic medium for about eight years now, I got my start by shooting film on my mother's 35mm Olympus.  Her patience and encouragement saw me through the transition to a digital format, which allowed me to document a life-changing trip to France during my senior year of high school.  I continue to work with digital, exploring the abundance of possibilities that the medium has to offer.

I am currently in my last semester of undergraduate study at the University of Kansas, where I will obtain a B.A. in Anthropology and a minor in Film Studies in May 2009.