As we live in isolation, more than 6 feet apart from each other, this body of work titled "Touching Photographically" explores different ways of connection through digital interfaces, collage, and long distance collaboration. There are images created with optical illusions – everything a distance apart but connecting visually. There are pieces created with screenshots and digital representations of the self when we truly want to connect in person. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, friends and loved ones were asked to take a selfie looking out of a window in their homes. The work as whole, in all its different forms, examines the distanced individual relationships and how to continue to create in a small Brooklyn apartment with limited resources.

While strongly believing that the key to social change is compassionate relationships that lead to genuine support, Shannon Finnell’s work attempts to embody that lesson through exploration and deconstruction of supportive gestures. Pulling from her BA in Studio Art and Peace Studies from Goucher College, the marriage of visual art and questioning oppressive social structures is where Finnell finds inspiration for her work. She received an MFA in Fine Art Photography from the Parsons School of Design in 2018 and continues to engage with concepts of support through experimental video, installation and photography in collaboration with dance.