Flipping through artist Patti Smith’s memoir, “Just Kids,” her sophomore year, Siena Tacy was inspired by the photography of Smith’s long-time friend Robert Mapplethorpe. This, alongside taking Photography 1 at Gunn, pushed her to pursue photography more seriously her second semester of sophomore year.
“I started working in the darkroom — I was in there for four months straight, alone, just printing pictures of plants,” she said. “And that’s when I knew that’s what I wanted to do.”
The following summer, Tacy enrolled in a summer program at the Parsons School of Design in New York, where she worked on thematic projects and her portfolio.
“The series I made at Parsons was about growing up lesbian in the Catholic Church,” she said. “Growing up religious and leaving religion are themes I like to focus on, and make me passionate about creating work that focuses on marginalized communities — especially ones I’m part of.”
Tacy’s art at Gunn has evolved as she has explored diverse mediums and techniques.
“I started mainly doing film, and I also really loved black-and-white photography,” she said. “But then I switched to digital to do my portfolio. While I still really like film, I like that with digital, I can play around with colors.”
Tacy attributes some of her best photography-related memories to photography teacher Marie Durquet.
“She’s always been really encouraging to me to pursue my passions,” she said. “I think she’s defnitely a big inspiration for independence and being an artist later in life. She showed me that I can make a career out of this, and that I can be very fulfilled by being in the arts world.”
For the next four years, Tacy will continue following her passion in the photography and imaging program at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.
“I want to carry out a thesis for a long period of time and do one big series dedicated to something I really care about,” she said. “I’m also excited to meet different people, and artists and professors that can inspire me in ways I haven’t experienced before.”
