Sylvia Bandyke
Sylvia Bandyke is a self-taught photographer whose signature collage style transforms everyday moments into layered visual narratives. Raised by a father who played piano, managed a record store, and pursued photography as a hobby, she received her first camera as a child and has carried an interest in the medium throughout her life. With formal education in creative writing—including two master’s degrees—her career initially took her into business and technical writing, but photography became her primary creative outlet in the last decade, spurred by participation in the international ArtPrize event in Grand Rapids, Michigan (2014–2018).
Bandyke’s collages merge four related photographs into unified compositions that invite viewers to uncover embedded stories. This structure reflects her background in playwriting and writing for the stage—delivering content with intention and message. “The multiplicity of images creates richness,” she explains, “with each photo augmenting, refuting, or completing the others.”
Her series People Masquerading as Themselves, begun in 2024, exemplifies her approach. Using an AI feature to alter portraits, she selectively accepts or declines random overlays until the face reflects her inner perception of the subject. In her collage of her mother—created while serving as her caregiver—Bandyke sought to capture “her obvious admirable strength on every level.”
Often, chance sparks her most inspired work: a broken lamp photographed during a power outage, prismatic light scattering across a room, or an AI transformation of her mother’s walker into surreal figures. These unplanned discoveries affirm the freshness and playfulness she values most in her art.
Now more than 77 works into her Masquerading series, many of which have been juried into exhibitions locally, nationally, and internationally, Bandyke embraces this “encore effort” as proof that creativity has no expiration date. “Any time is a good time to create,” she reflects. “Art can emerge from any life, as long as we stay true to our own way of seeing.”
