Archive Throwback is our chance to pull out and dust off old articles from the Chicago Arts Archive. This article, written by recent 3Arts Awardee and artist Sophia Nahli Allison, was published October 2012. 

At 26 and not even a full year after graduating from Columbia College Chicago’s photography graduate program, Clarissa Bonet’s photographic series City Space has been praised. An award winning photographer, her work has been exhibited in Chicago, Florida, Paris, China, Israel, and published by the award winning photography magazine PDN (Photo District News), the Swiss Magazine Das Magazin, Booooooom, and Feature Shoot…to name a few. Clarissa possesses the ability to create work that is captivating and full of emotion. I had the pleasure of learning more about the visual artist behind the camera.

Sophia Nahli: When did you know you wanted to be a photographer?

Clarissa Bonet: I started photography when I was in middle school. We had a little dark room in my school, so I started experimenting there, but I really got into photography when I was in high school. I knew my sophomore year of high school that photography was going to be my medium to work in.

SN: Why is photography important to you?

CB: That’s kind of a difficult question. I feel like I’ve always been drawn to art in general, ever since I was little, all different types of art forms. But I think photography, for me, is a way to use the camera to transform my ideas. I kind of put all this performance for the camera and then photograph that. I’ve tried a lot of mediums when I was younger and I always had a difficult time putting on paper what I had in my mind. So the camera was a tool for me to do that.

Read the complete article and see the video profile.

The above image is part of  City Space and courtesy of Clarissa Bonet.