Being primarily a portrait artist, I have always felt a lack of audience for my photography. I never expected my art to be in galleries, but instead in grandma’s photo album or on the walls of a family’s home. I have struggled with the the idea of my portraits being considered art because to me, they should really be considered memories.
However, I didn’t fall in love with photography because of portraits. What I really liked was abstract photographs because they used photography as a medium to capture a general idea or feeling rather than something specific. Abstractions forced me to look at the world a little differently. 
During the Spring semester of my senior year at San Jose State University, I was expected to show a body of work in a school gallery. Again, my portraits weren’t something I even considered being in a gallery and barely art, so I decided to go back to why I became a photographer in the first place.
That is when I came up with “Fluidity“. I was mesmerized by the vibrant clouds of acrylic paint when it was exposed to water. “Fluidity” became a series of soft, ethereal photographs that capture the random qualities of the fusion between pigment and water. The images are full of intensity as the paint swirls unpredictably around the tank and the diversity of color evokes a unique emotional response to each photograph.
Even though I don’t consider my portraits to be “fine art,” that doesn’t mean I am not an artist. Every type of art is going to have a different audience. It just happens that portraits generally have a smaller audience than other types of photography. More people are going to want to see globs of color rather than a family that they have never met. However, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Caitlyn Lunsford Photography 