2023 Senior Exhibition Artists 2023 Senior Exhibition Artists: Justin Medeiros

About Justin Medeiros

Justin Medeiros received his BFA in photography from University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in 2023. Justin’s interest in photography began at a young age and he enjoys photographing nature, portraits and concerts.  

Statement

“What’s one thing you wish you had said or followed through on?” is the question I am asking friends, family, classmates, coworkers and anonymous people. Based on their response, I create a photograph of my interpretation of the answers. The idea for this project comes from previous experiences I feel I missed due to me being too shy or not acting on an opportunity that could have benefited me. I want to bring awareness to people to take risks and to not be afraid of the unknown.  

I have been inspired by “We’re Not Really Strangers,” a card game with the objective of creating meaningful relationships between people. This is also the goal of this project. In the game you can play with a group of friends or strangers. The structure is designed to make the players confess or remember things from the past. Specifically, I am interested in the parts of the game that deals with what was or wasn’t said or done, or, more specifically: regret. The point being that it is perhaps easier to share personal or intimate thoughts or regrets with strangers. I want people to feel comfortable and trust me with what they are saying without fear of judgment. One way I can accomplish this is by giving them an option to submit their responses anonymously.  

My hope with this project is that once my participants tell me what they haven’t said or done it inspires them to be more open with people and willing to take risks. My plan is to show all the identified participants the images of their responses. Most of the photographs are staged to imagine the events the participants describe. If the images aren’t constructed scenes they are carefully considered places where I imagine the person might have seen or been influenced by. The print sizing will most likely range between 8.5 x 11" and 13 x 19". The photographs will be shown with the quotes from the participants adjacent to them.