CONVERGENCE

B.S. and BFA Photography Senior Exhibition

UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA

May 5 - July 31, 2026

This year, seniors from the University of Central Florida's BFA and B.S. photography programs partnered to create a joint exhibition titled "Convergence." This exhibition presents the culminating thesis portfolios of seven graduating seniors. Their bodies of work reflect a semester-long inquiry into a focused personal project, each representing a culmination of their four years of photographic study.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE OPENING RECEPTION

Enjoy this overview showcasing some of the faculty, staff and students in attendance at the opening reception.

UCF DAYTONA

FEATURED ARTISTS:

Briana Aguiar

Abigail Romeo

Kirstin Spencer

Briana Aguiar

Shared Focus

 In high school, sports photography became my way of participating. I was not the loudest in the stands, but through observation I found connection. The camera allowed me to be present without being on the field, becoming a tool for both observation and belonging. It gave me a role: observer and witness.

 My work focuses on women's sports at the University of Central Florida through my perspective as a female photographer. I am drawn to the moments surrounding the action as much as the action itself, from celebrations and reactions to quiet exchanges. These are the moments that don't make the scoreboard, but define what sport actually is. As a female photographer covering women's sports, I am not only a spectator, but also a part of it. These images capture the full range of women's athletics, from intensity to joy, to quiet concentration, centered around a shared focus that goes beyond the game itself. They convey not only what it looks like, but what it feels like to stand there and experience it.

Abigail Romeo

Bearing Witness 

My mom and I saw a man convulsing on the ground. At first, uneasiness filled us as we struggled to understand what we were seeing, but we soon realized he was overdosing. Pulling over, my mom quickly grabbed the overdose-reversal drug Narcan, which she was given by Volusia Recovery Alliance, and administered it to him twice. It brought him out of the condition he was in and likely saved his life before help arrived. This dramatic moment stirred in me a desire to document the stories of people working through recovery and how their lives transform in the process. In this series, I present a more personal view of individuals in different stages of that journey: some living in sober homes, others in their own homes, some who have been clean for years and now help others, and others who are only weeks or months into their journey toward a life of freedom through sobriety. 

These lives are often unseen and unheard. Many people never witness the struggles and triumphs that occur during recovery. Using my camera and conversation as entry points, I take time to meet with these individuals, listen to their stories, and record their words. I ask them what they want others to understand about addiction, recovery, and how their lives have changed. Through their voices and images, I invite viewers to look more closely at lives too often defined by stigma. Rather than reinforce stereotypes, I aim to bear witness to a journey of resilience toward a new life and to honor the humanity of the allies who support them along the way. 

Kirstin Spencer

Altered Coexistence

This project examines wildlife conservation as it exists in practice, not as it is commonly imagined. Rather than depicting idealized nature or focusing on a single place, the work investigates the human systems that quietly reshape the natural world: land management, recreation, and infrastructure. Though widely accepted as normal or necessary, these systems exert lasting pressure on habitats and force animals to adapt within landscapes designed primarily for people.

 Growing up near the Ocala National Forest shaped my understanding of this relationship. Being constantly surrounded by nature created a sense that everything is connected rather than separate. Over time, I have seen noticeable changes in these environments, areas that once felt undisturbed becoming altered, used more heavily, or no longer appreciated in the same way. Having that firsthand experience informs how I see and photograph these spaces.

 The photographs move between moments of presence and absence, animals navigating disrupted environments alongside spaces that have been emptied or altered. Together, these images speak to displacement, ecological imbalance, and the fragile interdependence that defines the relationship between humans and wildlife. The illusion of separation between the two is steadily dismantled, replaced by something more honest: a bond shaped by disruption, adaptation, and inescapable connection. This work surfaces the environmental consequences that are most often overlooked, not the dramatic or the visible, but the slow and quietly accepted.

UCF ORLANDO

FEATURED ARTISTS:

Reese Bowman

Brenna Fox

Madisen Sidlo

Dominiqua Ivey

Reese Bowman

Fragments

My work focuses on creating a variety of self-contained narratives. I approach this body of work with the idea of composing scenarios that exist on their own, leaving the viewer with the suggestion of a broader story beyond the moment seen. Most of the photographs lack a solidified or set story and are left to the interpretation of the viewer. I appreciate the idea of a viewer being forced to come to their own conclusion when lacking anything more than the image itself. It intrigues me as to how it may compare with my own thoughts, as it is telling of cultural iconography and my ability as a storyteller. In each photograph I conceptualize, compose, and light each scene with intention. Once the physical presence or suggestion of my scene exists, I move throughout it and alter the lighting to best understand how to translate my idea photographically. Additionally, I do a great deal of editing - primarily with light, hue, and saturation.

 I'm drawn to the blurred lines between memory and reality, and to how photography allows me to reimagine experiences that are at once personal and collective. Working with staged and observed photographs, I use light, color, and posing to create images that exist somewhere between documentation and theatre.My work is influenced by films, filmmaking strategies, and more cinematically styled photographers such as Holly Andres and Gregory Crewdson. I chose this way of working in part to challenge myself as a photographer, both in being creative in composition and problem-solving, as well as being self-driven as an individual.

BRENNA FOX

Hiding Behind the Light

 These photographs explore the distance between what we let the public see and what we keep to ourselves — the insecurities, vices and desires we hide, the parts of ourselves we only show in the dark. Everyone hides a version of themselves, and it is precisely that hidden self which shapes our behavior, personality and the way we interact with the world around us.

 Through shadow work and deliberate use of light and color, the images sit in contrast. They invite a curiosity of what lies beyond the frame. What is concealed is intentional, it is everything that creates a person. Hiding in plain sight, these nuances of being human are not pretty or delicate; they are loud and uncomfortable. Once you see them, you will never be able to unsee them, they quickly become part of everyday life. Like a shadow on the pavement: dark but integral to the light that surrounds it.

MADISEN SIDLO

Girlhood

Through my photographic work, I explore the beauty, tenderness, and complexity of girlhood — and how the women who raise us, grow beside us, and guide us shape how we come to know ourselves. My images seek to preserve fleeting moments that often go unnoticed yet carry real emotional weight. Through shared experiences most girls recognize — getting ready with friends, sleepovers, dance parties, the delicate details of femininity — I aim to capture both the nostalgia and the emotional complexity within these moments. Reflecting on girlhood from adulthood, and sifting through my own childhood memories, I explore how both continue to shape my identity and sense of self.

 I'm drawn to the blurred lines between memory and reality, and to how photography allows me to reimagine experiences that are at once personal and collective. Working with staged and observed photographs, I use light, color, and posing to create images that exist somewhere between documentation and theatre.

 Ultimately, this work is a love letter to being a girl in all its complexity — the softness, the strength, the hardships, and the bittersweet process of growing up. It celebrates the resilience and beauty of girlhood not as something left behind, but as an experience that continues to evolve as we age.

Born from a distinctive partnership between Daytona State College and the University of Florida, the program equips graduates with the technical rigor, creative depth, and critical thinking to build lasting careers within the photographic arts.

DOMINIQUA IVEY

Family Revelations

 Family Revelations is a series of double-exposed 35mm photographs made during a family vacation to Chattanooga, Tennessee in 2017, and shot again in my hometown of Tallahassee, Florida in 2020. The film itself has a story; it was an expired color roll of unknown age, already in the bag when my mom gave me her old Pentax K-1000. I left it in the trunk of my car over several Florida summers, and finally developed it in black and white chemistry in 2026.

The Chattanooga trip was our first family vacation out of state, shortly after my only sister was born. It was the only time I’ve seen snow and the farthest north I’ve ever been. My brother, who hates to be photographed, appears on this roll, and I still don't know how.

In the years between shooting and developing these photographs, my family dynamics shifted significantly in ways I couldn't have anticipated. Family Revelations is about love, loss, and distance, both emotional and physical, made visible through a process that was slow, layered, and gritty.