OWS Photos by Vanessa Bahmani

My name is Vanessa Bahmani, and I'm a Brooklyn based artist and photographer. I've been working on an Occupy portrait series since early October. I want to share this work with your group and be part of larger occupy arts collaborations.

My work is a compilation of over 1,000 black and white film Occupy Wall Street Portraits taken at the various occupy NYC and occupy Oakland, locations. I simply set up a photo booth on-site, hand people a dry erase board and marker, and ask them to write their reasons for being at OWS. Since early October I have photographed over 200 veterans, pilots, families, children, students, doctors, investment bankers, and even wall street employees and members of the 1% that seek change for our country. The thoughtfulness and sincerity that people have shown has inspired me to pursue this work and expand it. One of the unique things about my work is that I've grouped images into collages for example families, children, students, teachers and graduates. I did this to show that despite the various ethnic, financial or demographic differences, they all share the same concerns and values for the future of this country.

My work has been featured at the RUSH Arts gallery in Chelsea (Dec. 2011), and on the CURATE NYC on-line exhibit. This project is important because it is documenting a moment in history when thousands came together with the common goal to create a more just and fair society for everyone.  I believe that by giving this work exposure, I can amplify the volume of the voices of the 99%.

This work has been featured in the Huffington Post, Global Grind, and Turnstyle.

Thank you for your time and consideration. Happy New Year, may 2012 be occupied by your dreams and aspirations!

Here is a link to my Kickstarter to put it all into context: http://bit.ly/occupyportraits

- Vanessa

http://vanessabahmani.com/OWS/OWS.html