CASSANDRA YOUNG
CASSANDRA YOUNG
Mendocino, California
Winner, Int'l Photography Awards, 2021, Pro IPA
Winner, Int'l Photography Awards, 2021, Jury Top 5
Winner, Int'l Photography Awards, 2021 Oneshot, HR in Four Categories
Winner, APA LA, "Off The Clock" 2020, juried by David Fahey
Winner, Photo District News, Faces 2019
I create images non-traditionally, that connect to the humanity of the person being photographed.
Making photos is at the core of who I am. I learned to make pictures before I learned to drive. As a child, armed with my grandfathers Rollei, the first portrait I remember making was of my mother, who agreed to jump into a large bush of flowers and peek out at me. It was weird, and I was hooked. In college, studying with one of Ansel Adam's former assistants, I was obsessed with creating stark nudes in the studio and doing things with darkroom chemistry that is definitely not recommended. It got even weirder, and I loved it. As a starving artist in San Francisco, printing for Jock Sturges, I would ride around on buses at all hours of the night capturing the degradation of the city on a Hasselblad. The irony wasn't lost on me, and I knew I needed to shake things up.
I deviated from my passion, and delved into a decade long career in graphic design and art direction. I designed one-sheets in LA, and art directed advertising campaigns in NYC. It was only after art directing the first HD Film Festival in Manhattan, and working with incredibly impassioned directors, that I knew I had to get back to my life's work, photography.
In 2006 I opened my studio in Mendocino, CA, diving headlong into creative portraiture, and haven't looked back. After a workshop with Frank Ockenfels 3 I came to the realization, I have no fear of failure, but of not trying.