Meet photography student Annalea Krukowski

Annalea Krukowski is a photography major who was recently awarded the de la Burde Scholarship for art majors this past August. She is also the photography manager for the Tartan.

“As frustrating as it can sometimes be, I love it,” said Krukowski. “I wasn’t expecting photojournalism to appeal to me at all, but I was interested in the experience. It turns out, however, I was wrong and I love working for the paper.”

In addition to this, she is a Young Life leader at Pulaski County High School.

“It is so much fun; it takes every second of my free time, and pushes me to do things that I would never do on my own. I’ve met so many people through it,” said Krukowski, “When I’m not doing things as a leader, I’m going to Young Life College here at RU, which is great. All the fun minus the responsibly of being a leader.”

1. How did you feel when you found out that you were going to be awarded the de la Burde Scholarship?

I was shocked. I hadn’t been expecting it. I was under the impression that all grants/loans/scholarships were already given out. And of course, I was ecstatic.

2. How has the scholarship helped you as a student?

This scholarship has given me even more motivation to work hard and do well. Getting this scholarship was an amazing feeling. It was like someone other than my parents and my older brother saying that they think I’m doing a good job. So not only do I want to feel that feeling again, but I want to show them that they made a good choice.

Also, its one less thing to worry about. College is expensive as we all know, and I probably won’t stop worrying until the very last penny of my loans have been paid back, but this is just a little less that I have to scrounge together or a little less I have to take out in loans. This scholarship helps me worry less.

3. What themes and ideas do you explore within your photographs?

Generally my photographs come from one of three places – my life and experiences being one. Most big things that happen to me, both good and bad, will usually show up in my art in some way.

The second thing that really influences me is what I read, and I read a lot of fairy tales. So a specific fairy tale that I am inspired by or something that all fairy tales have in common will appear in my work.

If my photographs don’t fall into one of the first two categories, then they are usually inspired by darker things. I’m fascinated by murder and mayhem and the darker things in life, or rather why they happen, so sometimes my work becomes a bit dark.

On a sort of different but similar approach to answering this question, I work a lot in self-portraiture. That’s due to a couple of reasons, one being that its really hard to find people who are willing to model for free, and even harder to find a time when both of you are free (especially if you need more than one model in a photograph, then just forget it).

Another reason I work in self-portraiture is being that my artwork is very personal, whether I mean it to be or not, and so it just doesn’t feel right to have others portray whoever or whatever is in my photographs.

Lastly, I create art to say things, portray things, make people think things, and feel things that I don’t know how to do with words. When I use models I have to explain to them what I’m trying to say and portray so they know what to do, but the whole reason I create art is because I don’t know how to say it… you see the problem?

4. Who or what inspires you as a photography major?

Annie Leibovitz, and Cig Harvey (or at least currently). It changes based on who captures my eye at the moment, but usually one of those two is always a source of inspiration to me.

5. Do you have any other artistic hobbies/interests other than photography?

Aside from photography, I love all things 3D. I really like creating things with my hands, getting to something take shape.

6. Have you always known that you wanted to major in photography as a college student?

Nope. I’ve without a doubt always loved art, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to major in it for a long time. For a while I seriously considered majoring in Elementary Ed. since I’ve always loved to work with kids. Then I thought maybe Art Ed. because it was a combination of the two majors I was considering. It took a really long time for me to finally make a decision, and I have not regretted being a photography major for a second since. I love it.

7. How do you feel about having a new professor of photography?

Well, I wasn’t expecting Professor Gose to leave, so that caught me off guard. I’m definitely upset about that, but it’ll be interesting to see what Professor Ross does with the department.