Artist Statement

My name is Seon Pollard and I am a 20-year-old undergraduate student at Hunter College.  I am majoring in journalism and political science and is pursuing a career in journalism, public relations, or another field of communications.  My hobbies include: playing piano, running track and field, and engaging in various church activities.

In terms of media making, it is sometimes difficult to find inspiration for media projects.  However, I am interested in multimedia storytelling whether factual or fictional because I enjoy conveying fascinating stories and ideas in compelling ways.  I like informing people on several topics as well as on topics that can often go overlooked.

Journalism is a form of storytelling for me.  I like it because of the art of reporting (interviewing, writing, visuals etc.) and being able to inform people on something.  While I enjoyed many of the stories I have done, I especially enjoyed a feature story I did about a religious dance instructor.  I reported on how dance influenced her life and on how dance can impact others.  I particularly enjoyed this assignment because I was able to share someone and their powerful story with the world while learning new things in the process.  Moreover, although I enjoyed telling her story in print, I would enjoy telling her story in broadcast as well because I feel that it would have also been compelling that way.  It is interesting to have many different forms of multimedia to work with in telling a story.

There are some examples of media that resonated with me because of their storytelling on issues of importance as well as how the stories were told.  One movie that I recently watched and appreciate is “Us” by Jordan Peele. In the film, the main idea is that for certain groups in society to enjoy privileged lives, other groups are often marginalized and oppressed.  This an idea that may otherwise go unnoticed yet Peele highlighted it well.  He captured the audience’s attention on a topic people would rather ignore and possibly influenced people to be more aware of society they live in.  I also appreciate Peele’s work because he told a story of societal injustice in an intriguing way.  Instead of blatantly depicting scenes of injustice, Peele created a captivating horror film with a script and imagery that express that main idea behind the story.  I am also appreciative of author James Baldwin and his work because he also conveyed motifs and themes of societal injustice through his writing.  Moreover, he used his life as well as fictional storytelling centered on the Civil Rights Era to share information about race, gender, and other complex ideas.  Baldwin told unconventional stories that overlapped race, gender, sex, class, and other feats of society.  Additionally, I admire Trevor Noah’s “Born A Crime.”  Noah’s novel was about  book his unique life growing up in South Africa as a biracial individual and his deep connection with his mother.  Like the other works, Noah shared complex societal ideas of race, gender, family, and so on.  Nevertheless, Noah’s autobiography was a great way of conveying those ideas.  Normally, society learns about how injustice plays out in American society.  However, Noah’s work was a narrative of how societal influence in the apartheid and post-apartheid era influenced the life of a biracial South African; a story that is not usually shared.  All of these works discuss societal injustice and other complex ideas as well as  stories that could be ignored and need to be represented.  They address these things in compelling ways.  In my own work, I would be delighted to comment on societal topics using both actual and fictional information and share unique stories that need to be shared.  Furthermore, I strive to be as creative as possible in the process.

Overall, in my media production, I aspire to tell unique stories in interesting ways.  I want to use my platform to inform the world on whatever is newsworthy and important as well as whatever needs more attention.  I also want to be as innovative as possible with my work.  Since I am interested in communications, I am also passionate about expressing ideas coherently.  Therefore, I am dedicated to completing my work to the best of my ability.