- Hi everyone, my name is Talya Alsberg
I'm a visual storyteller and tattoo artist
currently in my very messy Brooklyn studio.
And today I'd love to discuss with you
my growth process through my time in SVA, let's do it.
Photography came to me,
through one of my mentors
at my previous community college in Seattle.
His name is Chad White and he taught me for the first time
that photographs didn't necessarily
need to only capture something that was existing
but rather you could create
the moment that isn't real necessarily.
And so from very, very early on I was super interested
in bridging this gap between reality and non-reality
and finding that really sweet spot in the middle
where things look right but they're not exactly there.
The portfolio that I submitted for SVA
was a mixture of photography work and illustration
because I've always kind of been in the middle.
When I was doing my portfolio
I thought that it was important to sort of show
a general language.
I wasn't necessarily fully aware at the time,
that what I was doing was what it was, if that makes sense.
But it was sort of like putting things together
that made sense color wise, texture wise and story wise.
And so this was just a painting that I did, God knows when.
Combined with two images from a photo series
that I put together in my garage at the time.
So this photo was also the same kind of thing.
Two very separate images that don't necessarily
have anything to do with one another,
I didn't really know what I was doing,
I didn't really have a clear direction,
but I did know what I wanted things to look like.
As you can see very basic the milk bath vibes.
I was, illustrating at the same time
that I was photographing and I was looking for a way
to show SVA, obviously, that those things can come together.
I didn't know yet at the time how to do that,
but we'll get there eventually.
Yeah and then just an illustration piece I threw in there,
I realized that I really wanted to show that
even though I was going into the photo video department,
I was intending to try different things
and to bring in more stuff than just a general image.
This is one of the last projects I did before coming to SVA
and before submitting the portfolio.
I took a bunch of my friends
and of course I was very interested in the female image.
And so, again, not really knowing what I'm doing,
just playing around, yeah.
So I actually came into SVA as a transfer student
in my sophomore year, I didn't actually get to have
a freshmen blocks class here at SVA.
But I did come with a little bit of like previous stuff
so I did know a very small bit of Photoshop,
not so much lighting, barely.
And this is sort of when the studio comes in.
A wonderful professor, Elizabeth Bick,
who I took studio lighting with,
and she taught me everything I know about lighting.
But yeah, so this is sort of
what my lighting exercises looked like.
Now this is not necessarily a phenomenal image,
but this is where you see the beginning
of what things look like, right
as you're starting out your journey here.
This is another image from a class exercise that we did,
I just thought I'd share it,
we do work with models, it's really fun.
In this image we started playing around with long exposure,
which was super new for me and I ended up obviously using it
in my future projects that we'll get to.
Now, this image is the magic image,
because this is where self portraiture started for me.
Playing around with bugs, again, doing a lot of compositing.
You can see a couple of mistakes technically in the image,
but, it was sort of the beginning of something great.
This image is called "Moons" from the same series
I was working on at the time.
I started playing with more texture
and then again, went back to that wide lens.
This lens is a 17 to 25, I love this lens,
I recommend it for everyone
if you want that distorted like kooky look.
This is from the same project playing with some bugs
I put it in my mouth, it was gross,
but very worth it for the picture.
A lot of stuff you're seeing, of course is composited,
but again, we're trying to make non-reality
happen here, okay?
Okay, so moving on to my junior year, this is when things
started to get a little more interesting.
As I started realizing that I can go really deep
with my work and that it doesn't necessarily
have to mean anything, but there can be self exploration
through what you're creating.
Just to show you, this is what
a class exercise would look like.
We shot this, I believe in four by five
I don't really shoot film anymore.
Moving on to Many Ladies,
which is the project I was doing in my junior year.
This is when I really started being interested
in my roles as a woman,
I started digging deeper into my work.
I was alone in the studio, this sort of picture took me
about six hours to make only one photo would come out of it,
as you can see.
Again, with that wide lens, it gives that super like,
wide but closeup vibe, so obviously I love that.
And I was trying to keep a color scheme
with this project as well as I have in the past.
This photo is you can see it's like the same fabric
I'd go to the dollar store a lot.
And again, get my hands on whatever sort of
different textures and stuff I can work with.
So obviously here you can really start to see
in this red image, the progression with my editing
and with the lighting, everything is starting to really look
a little bit more crisp and together.
Here is "Crystal," again, I cooked a lot of pasta
in preparation for this image.
This image with the fish
was the first self portrait I did on location.
I had a class where we got to go to a theme hotel
in the city, and I brought a fish with me.
There is not really mountains in the back of this image,
but everything else was actually in the photo,
so very, very fun, this was amazing to do.
So really from here on out, I started experimenting
really specifically with women roles and sort of,
what the roles of a woman were and how can I sort of
break the patterns that have been happening
ancestrally for women?
I was also very interested in America
because I am not American.
And so I was experimenting with Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders
was one that I was super into as you can see in this image.
I did a series where I dressed up
as child beauty pageant contestants, only one of them won.
But that was a super fun exploration to do.
And this is also the time
when I started experimenting with video.
So I was taking a aftereffects class at the time
with Paul DeSilva, who is amazing, very recommended.
I finally found a way to make video work for me
because until that time that I started doing
the effects class, I didn't really feel connected to it
and then finally I was able to again,
create those worlds in reality, which was amazing.
Okay, so moving on to my senior year, which just ended.
I didn't know what to do, obviously we were in a pandemic.
I didn't have the studio anymore
that I've gotten so used to using,
barely even had a good camera on me
because I couldn't go to school,
I wasn't even in New York at the time.
I was interested in sort of creating an archive,
this visual archive of my entire lifetime.
And that was really where
all of my senior year thesis started.
And so I started collecting a lot of imagery
from my childhood to see how I can combine all these things
together and maybe make some sort of visual language.
And this is when I found this gem of a picture
from probably when I was 10 or 11,
and this might be my very first self portrait.
I really started to look into what history means
and I very quickly realized that in order to
create an archive of my own life,
it would be important to create an archive of all life,
of everything that has ever happened and ever will.
So I had this huge roll of paper
where I would just note down,
everything that was coming out of my brain.
I got a lot into quantum physics, I was researching a cult.
I got more into Hinduism and Buddhism
and absolutely everything that I could get my hands on
that had anything to do with mysticism, spirituality, magic.
And then eventually everything came together
when I started sculpting.
So I started creating little creatures
who eventually I realized were little spirit guides.
And basically I created eight worlds
where you can find your very own record keeper
in reference to the Akashic records.
And each one of them is supposed to have healing properties.
And within them, I've embedded, you know,
this ancestral trauma healing that needs to happen for me,
for my people and obviously for the rest of the world,
because we all hold within us,
the DNA of our ancestors and everyone that came before us.
So it was really important for me to dig deep
and to find out how to get all of these things out
and get them moving from the body.
And finally, I found the way to combine
all of the things that I love together.
This first image is me in the middle with an owl head,
this image is called "The Source."
You can see that her little fairy friends are helping her
organize all of her mantras, all of her thoughts.
I live by three basic mantras,
see all confrontation through the lens of compassion,
remember that your actions have an impact in all of humanity
and release all self-limiting beliefs and doubts.
And so those were the things that I was keeping with me
while I was working on this project.
I created the big helmet out of expanding foam
that you can see right over there.
And yeah, in the tunnel was just the inside of of it.
So, again, you can make anything out of anything
it doesn't have to be the real thing
to look like it's the real thing.
Yeah so, "Alena:The Exit,"
this is the big protector of all knowledge.
As you can see by this point, you can tell
all of the technical things
that I've sort of collected over my time here,
coming together to create a super crisp image
that looks really good.
And like comes together, but still looks a little bit crazy,
which is all the things that I want to keep.
This image is called "The Library."
I just brought our little robot friend here
to show you kind of her scale and how big she is.
Circumstances of COVID made it so that I would have to find
a way to make these sculptures be visible over the internet.
And that now people can't necessarily hold this sculpture
or, talk to it as I originally wanted to,
but now I'm able to create a full world for this being.
Like the little caves or mountains on the sides
are also all sculptures that I just photographed
and stretched around and made it look like
what it looks like right now.
This is really a final ode to my love for illustration
with this project, pretty much illustrating where
the different worlds are for my beings.
Where are they located and sort of the journey
that you would take if you were to go through this story,
I of course have a lot more work to share with you,
you're more than welcome to check it out on my website,
it's talyaalsberg.com.
Or for tattoo work on TalyaaEllsbergArt on Instagram.
The experience that you will have at SVA
is really all about you.
Be unapologetic with your work, do whatever you want,
make it really work for you.
Remember to not take yourself too seriously
art is supposed to be healing and art is supposed to be fun.
Also remember that it's not really necessary for you to
be perfect or know exactly how to do what you're doing.
Don't fall into the pressure of doing
what everybody around you is doing,
because let those people do that
you need to be focusing on what makes you happy,
what comes from your heart and what makes you feel good.
Very nice to meet you all, I will be here,
so see you later, bye.