Clublife: Kalina Isato
Monday, November 30th, 2009
Lips - Self Portrait Kalina Isato
…..Kalina Isato always wanted to be an artist, but conservative Asian parents squelched her early dreams. They were not supportive of her interest in studying the Arts, and like many parents didn’t see an upside to studying Art in college. They encouraged her instead to study the Sciences, particularly computer science and engineering while pursuing her creative endeavors of photography and music production on the side. Her accomplishments in the sciences would make any parent proud, graduating from Boston University with a BA and MA in Computer Science in 1989, Magna Cum Laude and Phi Betta Kappa. During that same period, she completed an advanced course in logic programming at Harvard University.
All along Kalina continued to pursue her interest in the Arts and used the photographic medium as a vehicle to express herself, and her unique place in subcultural America. She’s currently studying photography at the University of Pennsylvania where the studio was recently introduced to her work. In her own words, Ms. Isato describes her current body of work and how the series “Clublife” evolved. This particular grouping of pictures is currently on display from November 8th to December 31, 2009 at the William Way Community Center, 1315 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, Pa. To learn more about Ms. Isato’s work log on to www.KalinaIsato.com.
Posted By Kalina Isato
“Throughout most of my life, I knew that I was born different and it wasn’t until my teenage years that I came to terms with my transgender nature and started creating the image that people see today. Every time I go out bar or club hopping, I always take pictures to document the night. I never conscientiously wanted to create a public exhibit of my work, but over time the number of pictures I took and the fact that I was able to capture candid scenes – because my subjects were comfortable with me – convinced me that what I was creating was too important to keep in a scrapbook all to myself.
Lauren
My meticulousness made math and science easy for me and when it came time to study photography formally in 2007, I was prepared to handle all of the technical demands that photography requires.
Jacqui And Brenda
I believe that being both artistic and technical, I see things that some people who focus soley on one or the other cannot see.
I rarely mention my honors anymore, because it make me sound like a true geek:).
Transsexual Women's Hands