2023 Senior Exhibition Artists

Ora Heard

Art + Design: Photography

About Ora Heard

Ora Heard is a fine art photographer from St. Louis, currently based in western Massachusetts who received a BFA in Photography from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in 2023. Using both digital photographs and video, her work explores her family history and how a place and the things that inhabit it can influence one's life.

Statement

I grew up in the Midwest, but spent many summers in Massachusetts visiting my aunt and uncle. Their house is where I made many memories during my formative years, and it became a second home to me. It was where I attempted to learn how to ride a bike, swam in the pool all day, pretended to ride the horse in the yard, and drove a car for the first time (albeit a decade before getting my driver’s license). At their house, I was away from my siblings and parents, and got to explore this grand house with extravagant decor all by myself. I remember running really fast up the stairs at night, thinking that something was going to jump out and get me. Things always look different in the dark, something familiar in the day becomes completely foreign in shadow. This is an idea I wanted to explore with this series.

Through making my own color digital photographs, along with a first person point-of-view video, I want to give the viewer a glimpse into my memories, my family, and our history by recreating those childhood moments, as well as capturing the space in which they were created, and the items within it.

This project is about revisiting a place that has greatly influenced my life and who I grew up to be. It is an exploration of my childhood memories, and how my experience has changed re-visiting this place as an adult. No longer is the house this giant, magical place, but is a place of comfort, and somewhere I’m not afraid to explore in the dark.