DPI 2025 BFA Senior Thesis Exhibition, Curated by Kalia Brooks

An exhibition featuring works in photography, digital imaging, and multimedia by graduating seniors from the Department of Photography & Imaging at NYU Tisch School of the Arts

DPI is proud to present the 2025 DPI BFA Exhibition, curated by Kalia Brooks. This exhibition presents the work of the graduating Photography & Imaging class. It is installed in the Gulf + Western Gallery (1st floor rear lobby) and the 8th Floor Gallery at 721 Broadway (at Waverly Place). It will remain on view through May 17, 2025.

The 2025 DPI BFA Exhibition presents 42 artistic thesis projects, featuring everything from photographs, images, videos and books to sounds, installations, and interactive experiences. The artists in this year’s graduating class go above and beyond traditional notions of the photograph, blurring the lines between mediums, materials, and fields of knowledge, to redefine what it means to be a photographer, an artist, and a student in a constantly evolving world. Their work addresses contemporary themes of identity, the body, place, time, spirituality, technology, memory, and globalization and serves as their capstone project providing just a peek into what they’ve learned during their time at NYU, a school that fosters global perspectives and critical thinkers.

ABOUT THE CURATOR

Kalia Brooks, PhD, is the Director of Programs and Exhibitions at NXTHVN. She is responsible for the design and delivery of curatorial exhibitions, public programs, artist projects, community engagement initiatives and the learning environment for the fellowship and apprenticeship programs.  Her academic research covers art from the nineteenth century to the present, with an emphasis on emergent technologies and African American, trans-Atlantic and diasporic cultures of the Americas. Brooks holds a PhD in Aesthetics and Art Theory from the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts (IDSVA). She is co editor of Women and Migration: Responses in Art and History (Open Book Publishers, Cambridge, UK, 2019 and 2022). She has served as a consulting curator with the City of New York through the Department of Cultural Affairs and was an ex-officio trustee on the Board of the Museum of the City of New York during the de Blasio administration.

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS INCLUDE

Danny Arensberg

Through an unbiased but empathetic lens, Danny is able to capture the raw emotions that move people to act.

Shea Baasch

Returning; to a house no longer home, to a home that is not my house.

Ethan Thomas Barrett

Americans Now, a Response to Robert Frank's The Americans(1958) is an investigation into contemporary American life in the early 2020s in comparison to Robert Frank's The Americans in regards to subject matter and the American way of life.

Julie Benatar

This project explores the generational cycle of eating disorders between mother and daughter, weaving together our personal journeys to illuminate the reality of this struggle, challenge misconceptions, and ultimately find peace amidst its lingering presence.

Somalia Bryant

An exploration of the way grief and evolution interact with memory through the utilization of portraiture and familial archives.

Ashley Cho

Reimagining femininity through the lens of the flâneuse, the project unravels the tension between observing and being observed in public spaces, using layered Polaroid collages and red thread stitching to symbolize the invisible labor and societal pressures tethering women to the gaze of others.

Alex Cohen

Femme Fracturée is a glimpse into my own dance with masks of hyper-femininity, where the performance both conceals and reveals vulnerability, conformity, and the tension between the two.

Grace Bader Conrad

Grace Conrad creates intricate platinum palladium prints that explore the profound connections between humans, animals, and the natural world, as seen in their current project, Children and Their Companions, which examines the solace children find in untamed environments and invites reflection on the bond between people and their surroundings.

Finn Crawford

An extensive portrait project documenting the unpredictable state of fashion among freshman fashion students living in NYC.

Vince Criniti

This project is a sensory journey into the essence of dance music.

Francesca DiMiceli

Taking classic horror monsters from the early 1900s, Francesca DiMiceli pays homage to these beloved characters by feminizing them as beautiful yet haunting creatures.

Ava Emmons

We Are Killing the Earth is a collection of images made in 3D and further designed into magazine covers to provide direct commentary on the impact of climate change.

Jialing Gao

Explore the lost part of my childhood.

Yul Han

This work is a meditation on finding one’s querencia—a sanctuary born from struggle, where I feel deeply grounded, detached from the world, yet more present than ever.

Seyeon Jeong

'Yeok-Ma-Sal' is a 3D artwork that delves into themes of cultural displacement and identity formation, reflecting my journey between the U.S. and Korea through the fusion of traditional Korean heritage and modern digital techniques.

Arki Johnson

Jamie Kimura

By combining archival analog imagery with current digital photography, I aim to reflect on memory and change in relation to my Japanese grandmother with Alzheimer’s.

Jenny Le

What could be more beautiful than sisterhood?

Patrick Gil Lespinasse

“Iconic: Archetypes of American Blackness” is a visual exploration of the diverse and profound identities within the Black/African-American community in the United States.

Jacob Levine

Over the course of the past three and a three and a half years I have captured the relationship between myself and my late grandparents with the aim to visualize their influences in my life.

Phoenix-Li McHayle

My thesis embraces the notion that while urban and metropolitan landscapes will continually grow and further intervene with nature; my repeated escapes to nameless spots with my camera solidifies the infinite, inevitable, yet tranquil qualities that define nature when compared to our seemingly meager human existence and urban landscapes.

Oba Oluwehinmi

Jada Rodriguez

The Girl I’ve Been Looking For is a photography series that delves into the power, intimacy, and complexity of Black trans women’s and femmes’ lives, this work reflects on their girlhood and serves as a parallel exploration of my own personal journey.

Chloe Victoria Rodriguez

In Skin Maps, Chloe V. Rodriguez asks her viewers to confront the uncomfortable beauty in these scars, the way they linger as reminders of what we carry with us long after a wound has healed.

Ryan Rogers

Ryan Rogers’ utopic visual style blends together comedy and surrealism to showcase a synthetic ideal world.

Beyoncé Rose

"Red, BLACK and Blue" is a photo project where I dive into my experience growing up Black and Christian in the South. It’s a mix of the traditional Southern, Christian lifestyle, but with my own unique perspective. I’m sharing the moments that really shaped me—like family get-togethers, lively church services, and the sights and feel of my hometown, Virginia Beach.

Stevia Roxanne

I Saw Things I Imagined is an experiment in Afro-fabulation rooted in my childhood growing up in my mothers salon. Using the memory of their youth, Stevia Roxanne reimagine West African Orishas as hair deities.

Jadah Sanders

“Once you’ve been to one small town, you’ve been to them all”—my project explores my complex relationship with Alabama, documenting familiar places that reflect its layered history, culture, and the evolving concept of home amidst personal and political shifts.

Luiz Simione

Grace Anthony Smidt

For two and a half months I took three photos of myself every day to show how the changes in our bodies mark the passage of time.

Caroline F. Solakian

The Character Studies is a series of self-portraits transformed through special effects makeup, exploring themes of vulnerability, anti-heroism, and the resilience of the female spirit through crafted personas and fictional storytelling.

Tamara Tsehai Tesfai

The Country Above The Clouds: Scenes Across Eritrea is a contemporary street and self-portrait photography series that spotlights Eritrean pride, strength, and resilience.

Ava Jade Thornton

“Evie” is a reimagined archive through self-portraiture that seeks to reflect the spirit and essence of my grandmother, Evelyn Eraci Glieberman.

Tommy Long Tran

Drawing from my childhood among the vibrant fabric stalls of An Dong Market in District 5, my art weaves together threads of heritage, memory, and identity, celebrating fabric as a timeless connection between generations and a reflection of life itself.

Lily Meidi Updike

On September 9, 2003, I first met my mother at The White Swan Hotel.

Chenlei Wang

This project explores women's societal constraints through photography and 3D animation, highlighting their inner struggles and the ongoing pursuit of liberation.

Kaitlyn Wigmore

"Behind Your Eyes" is simultaneously an ode to the era of silent films and a story which explores the journey of a woman uncovering the true nature of the man she is with.

Baiyi Wu

"Seen, Unseen" is an interactive installation combining photography and animation to challenge snap judgments, revealing the hidden complexities and untold stories within every individual.

Jinkai Wu

I see the subway system in New York 'Functionally Dysfunctional,' which this project seeks to represent through its recreation of the subway interior, showcasing how those who live in New York plan and work around the chaos.

Cleo Yao

Vomit Express is an unflinching gaze into the void, a photographic chronicle of two years journey spent fleeing and yet confronting the weight of existence.

Nadine Zhan

In Would you still love me if I…? Nadine Zhan explores the relationship dynamics within a family shaped by assimilation and diaspora, utilizing the camera as an entry point for intimacy with a home that felt distant.

Jerry Zhao

The Flesh of a Moth critiques society’s obsession with nostalgia by transforming a cocoon-like installation of fragmented Polaroids and melted plastic into a metaphor for how memories are fetishized, devalued, and distorted in the pursuit of comfort.