VMPA Senior Thesis

Andrew Puyat
Photography

Biography

Andrew (Kai) is a photographer and 2020 graduate of Rutgers University in Camden, New Jersey. He has interned for Rutgers Visual Media Performing Arts as their social media content creator and assisted in helping rebrand their image. He also interned with fashion brand, Telfar, helping to style models for their collaboration with Converse. As a photographer and fashion enthusiast, he enjoys shooting editorial style portraits with a focus on storytelling. Kai’s ultimate career goal is to work on advertisement for fashion brands with values that align with his. In his spare time, he likes to dance and work on his online clothing thrift store.

Statement

There is a whole industry that already exists that combines my interests in photography and fashion. Fashion photos are taken for magazines, billboard ads, brand lookbooks, and many other applications. Looking at that type of imagery, I get a sense of a romantic, idealized caricature of a person that is normally unattainable in the everyday. I started to think, is it possible to emulate that emotion through my photos with someone who doesn’t have any experience in modeling?

With the help of some friends that have had few encounters with a professional DSLR camera, I explore common aspects of editorial and commercial photography such as styling, prop usage, lighting, and model direction to create editorial style photos. These pictures are a study of the aesthetics associated with a high-end fashion photoshoot, to beautify without explicitly marketing a specific brand.