As she stomps on the gas and cranks up her radio, flooding the car with American music, she laughs with friends in the surrounding seats and aches to take photographs of the areas they coast through on their latest road trip.
It is with these friends that she can express her love of photography and art.
Graduate student Danea Males, winner of this years Juror’s Choice Award at the Annual Juried Student Art Exhibition, is no stranger to the field of photography and art.
Graduating with her Bachelor of Arts degree in photography from Texas A&M University-Commerce in May of 2003, she came back in the fall of 2004 to start work on her master of fine arts degree.
“I greatly appreciate both the photo and art departments at the university. Previous to starting my master’s degree, I did not have much experience outside of photography,” Males said. “Coming back to school game me the opportunity to receive guidance from the rest of the art faculty and the ability to understand my work as fine art.”
Having been a photographer for almost ten years, Males has competed in several juried art exhibitions and competitions, the most recent being the Joyce Elaine Grant Photography Exhibition at the Texas Woman’s University in Dallas, Texas.
Although she has pursued photography for the majority of her collegiate career, Males was not always interested in the subject. It was when she met her former professor, mentor and dear friend O. Rufus Lovett at Kilgore College, that her interest was piqued.
“It was completely by chance that I took one of his photography classes. At the time, I was a recent high school graduate and did not know what I wanted to do with my life,” Males said. “I grew up in Kilgore and am very fortunate to have had the experience of his classes and guidance so close to home.”
Since her current work deals with elements of Americana within the American landscape, Males has been interested in and inspired by many photographers throughout history who documented and responded to American values and culture.
“Primarily, the photographers of the 1960s and early 1970s who developed what is labeled as ‘the snapshot aesthetic’ are my main sources of inspiration,” Males said.
The photographers Males finds to be the most motivating include Robert Frank, Lee Friedlander, Garry Winogrand and Diane Arbus, just to name a few.
When she’s not knee-deep in schoolwork, or putting in long hours as a full-time graduate assistant in the photo department of A&M-Commerce, Males enjoys taking road trips with her friends.
“All of my friends are artists and photographers and we exist in a community based on our artistic endeavors,” Males said. “I find it to be an enriching and fulfilling experience to be surrounded by people who have an outlook and awareness similar to my own, but yet create their own work with unique perceptions and sensibilities.”