We love our local photographers. Their accomplishments never cease to impress us. They are proof that Columbus is a great city for photographers. Hometown Heroes highlights a Columbus photographer that we think is doing amazing work.

The OSU Photoleague, Ohio State’s student-run photo group, just wrapped up their first exhibition of 2013. The theme for the show was Hashtag Your Publicly Private Life, and we were happy to be a sponsor for this forward-thinking exhbit. All the exhbitors for “Hashtag” were undergrad or grad students at Ohio State, and five well-deserving photos were selected as Top in Show. We wanted to ask the Top in Show some questions about being young photographers and to highlight their work. Part III features Amanda Dobson.

Amanda Dobson is a student at The Ohio State University getting her BFA in Photography.

MPEX: What are your photographic interests? What do you pursue with your photography from an artistic standpoint?

Amanda Dobson: I am interested in how photography can alter reality. I pursue photographing the city, reflections and working physically with my images. A project that I did last semester where I layered paper on top of my images to remove information actually inspired my most current large project. For this project, titled Double Duplicate, I have been taking photographs from my childhood and ripping them based on what feels appropriate for the images. This project is a response to my experiences growing up as a twin.

Why did you decide to go to school for photography? What do you feel you are gaining from studying photography in an academic setting?

I decided to go to school for photography because that was where my passion ended up being after I took a photography class as part of a summer’s honors program while I was in high school. I feel like I am gaining the insight of my classmates and an understanding of art history and theorists that I would have never gotten on my own.

What do you hope to do with your photography after you graduate?

I hope to make a career for myself as an artist and show my work in galleries. I also hope to eventually create my own business. I am also thinking about going onto graduate school for photography. I will be very happy if I am doing anything with photography when I graduate while I work towards those goals.

Check out more of Amanda’s work here!