Rachel Handlin Recreates Eugene Atget’s Paris Cityscapes

[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible” type=”legacy”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_5″ layout=”1_5″ last=”false” spacing=”yes” center_content=”no” hide_on_mobile=”no” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_position=”left top” hover_type=”none” link=”” border_position=”all” border_color=”” border_style=”” padding_top=”” padding_right=”” padding_bottom=”” padding_left=”” margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”” animation_speed=”0.1″ animation_offset=”” class=”” id=”” border_sizes_top=”0px” border_sizes_bottom=”0px” border_sizes_left=”0px” border_sizes_right=”0px” first=”true” spacing_right=”2%” min_height=””][/fusion_builder_column][fusion_builder_column type=”3_5″ layout=”3_5″ last=”false” spacing=”yes” center_content=”no” hide_on_mobile=”no” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_position=”left top” hover_type=”none” link=”” border_position=”all” border_color=”” border_style=”” padding_top=”” padding_right=”” padding_bottom=”” padding_left=”” margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”” animation_speed=”0.1″ animation_offset=”” class=”” id=”” border_sizes_top=”0px” border_sizes_bottom=”0px” border_sizes_left=”0px” border_sizes_right=”0px” first=”false” spacing_right=”2%” spacing_left=”2%” min_height=””][fusion_text]Rachel Handlin is no stranger to hard work. She says, “I have worked really hard so I can go to college with my friends.” She was accepted into 7 different colleges from the Parsons School of Design in New York to Paris College of Art in Paris. She chose California Institute of the Arts and is now in her second year there where she is studying photography. Last year, Rachel completed 24 credits toward her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. This semester, she is carrying 13 credits. If she continues to be successful as she has been so far, they expect it will take her between 5 and 6 years to earn her degree.

Before even starting CalArts, she had some of her work in galleries in New York City, London and throughout England. She uses the camera as a form of expression and says, “Sometimes it’s hard for me to use words to say what I mean. My pictures can say what I mean.”

Here she is on the streets of Paris this summer working on a project where she literally walked the footsteps of Eugene Atget, recreating some of his cityscapes- digitally and on film- 106 years later. Atget was a pioneer of documentary photography, noted for his determination to document all of the architecture and street scenes of Paris before their disappearance to modernization. It is only fitting that Rachel is walking in his footsteps as she is a true pioneer herself, breaking down barriers and stereotypes and paving the way for a for more opportunities for people with Down syndrome.

The Paris project is an ongoing thing that she will work on over several years. The set-ups for each photograph are extremely time and labor intensive, with each set-up taking a few of hours. She took the shots both digitally and on film, and, this semester, as Independent Study, she is working on developing and printing them. I can’t wait to see the finished project!

Rachel says, “I like telling people about my pictures. I want lots of people to see my pictures in galleries, museums and on the computer and see that I do a good job. I want them to see I am a photographer.”

Rachel…WE SEE YOU!! And you are rockin’ it!!! You are amazing and we are so proud of you!!

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