Boston Week: Asia Kepka

This week I am featuring image makers from the rich community of Boston photographers...



It immediately evident that Asia Kepka is a creative force to be reckoned with. Photographer Caleb Cole gave me the head's up about Asia's whimsical and color saturated series, Bridget and I, and I'm glad he did. Asia is primarily an editorial photographer, working both with a large format camera and with digital. Her clients include Time, Fortune, Bloomberg, Money, People Magazines, The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post Magazine, and many others.

What's also evident is Asia's refreshing sense of humor...
The day Asia Kepka was born her grandmother cried. The tears were not the tears of joy- grandmother cried because she “has never seen such an ugly baby”. The straightforward Polish “Babcia” predicted Asia's future - she was meant to be behind the camera.

Asia's statement for Bridget and I follows:
6 years ago I found Bridget on Craigslist . I was intrigued and decided to spend $100 not knowing really what will I do with her. One day I took her out of my basement, dressed her up and started to set up a portrait. She looked bit stiff and the photo needed something.. never before I was a fan of doing self portraits but I decided to jump in. Suddenly I found myself in the midst of my most exciting project-don't get me wrong- taking photos always brought me incredible rush and joy.

Working as a photographer I feel like a dog with it's head out of the window of a car on the way to the park. This project became my visual diary- place where I record my dreams, my past, my everyday life. My hope was to create a fairy tale that is timeless, independent of place, hermetically sealed from the outside world. This cathartic process has allowed me to explore issues of my identity as a woman and as an immigrant. Quite often images of me are reflection of my Mother and Grandmother back in Poland. All images are self portraits taken with 4x5 camera. The only exception are water shots.

This adventure has been physically challenging (Bridget is quite heavy and rigid) but incredibly rewarding personally.

Images from Bridget and Me