Four visions from self-producing artists

Action, drama, and feelings are demonstrated in the Four Visions Photo Gallery, designed and paid for by four talented EC students.

“The goal (and) the purpose is to showcase the work of emerging artist students and it is just an outlet so that they can be viewed by as many people as possible, part of the reason why I was able to do this is because I am currently focusing on photographing students at school so I don’t need the gallery to showcase my work,” Omar Casasola, photographer and owner of the studio said. “Crystal (King) and now Cary (Majano) both work with me and I figure since they work for me why not give them a space, so they can use it, then they can use it and present their work.”

The idea of present their own gallery show came about from the classes they took at EC, Crystal King, 21, photography, said.

“(This gallery) was my life for the past summer; I’ve just been amazed of the fact that I can do something like this and it really show me my real strength and show me that this career choice its going to work for me. I’m growing up a lot as a person. I got to see what it takes to put a show together and its not as easy as I thought in the beginning, it’s actually very complex, really detail-oriented and very specific,” King said.

“When we started this gallery, we had to start from scratch and the studio was not a gallery in the first place; it was just a regular business. So we actually dealt a lot with the creation of it, painting, framing, dealing with the alignment, dealing with all decorating. It was a joint team effort between the four photographers and this would not be possible with out everybody participating,” said Cary Majano, 30, photography major.

Manuel Dominguez, 25, business and photography major, and one of the four photographers said that this is the first time that he showed his photos outside of EC and he loves to play paintball.

In his photos, he wanted to show that paintball is a great sport to play.

“With these pictures I just want people outside of the sport to see how it is to get them interested in it and hopefully they will play it one day and try to get more people into the sport,” Dominguez said.

Another EC student that participated in this project is Maria H. Andrade-Reyes, 34, photography major, who suffered back and leg injuries in 2009 and 2010, Her injuries put her into a deep depression and she uses photography as an emotional outlet.

“It’s a good experience because you get to see the work of different photographers and we all have different ideas and being able to put a show together. It was hard but at the end of the day it was rewarding,” Andrade-Reyes said.

The exhibition is located in Casasola Photography, 2202 Artesia Blvd. suite F in Torrance, open Monday through Friday from noon to 6 p.m. and the last day of the showcase is Sept. 21, according to Four Visions flyer.

“This is the first time we do this, and hopefully things goes well and we be able to do this for more students. I spoke to the head of your college department (Darilyn Rowan) and I haven’t visited her, although she gave me an open invitation to visit and I am planning to visit and maybe we can work something in the future with students,” said Casasola.