As an emerging young artist with a creative and versatile eye, Olivia Bidleman wants to tell stories her own way.

“I want to send powerful messages to people through my photographs,” said Bidleman, 16, a junior at Auburn Riverside High School and an aspiring professional photographer. “I want to find photos that let the humanity out. A photo should speak for itself, and I let mine speak for me.”

Using today’s Internet as a canvas, Bidleman’s work has traveled far, catching the eyes of people around the world. Her growing portfolio of film and digital images – of people, places and things – has attracted a strong following on Flickr.com and reached popular fashion and outfitter websites.

“And I’m so excited to see what the future holds,” she said. “I’m just transitioning from freelance photography into the professional world, competing with others around the area who are much older and more experienced than I.”

Bidleman’s fascination with images began at an early age, influenced partly by family, especially her mother, Cheryl, a professional portrait photographer.

Where mom’s work is classic, traditional and “within basic rules,” Bidleman is more “out of the box,” experimental, abstract and free.

“She does amazing work. I really admire her,” Bidleman said of her mother. “But our styles are very different.”

Once Cheryl provided her daughter with technical direction, Olivia took off creatively.

“She’s a natural,” Cheryl said, “and I’m kind of excited to see what she will do with it someday.”

Olivia began to experiment photographically using her grandmother’s old Minolta film camera as the medium of choice. She soon was intrigued.

“I like the quality of old film,” she said. “It looks vintage, the grain. … It gives its soul.”

Inspired by its affect, she continues to use the same camera for many projects today. She also shares digital ideas with many of her friends worldwide.

“I like to capture life, light, and to create beautiful and compelling stories,” Olivia said of her work. “Pictures can be so powerful, and I like to capture personalities. … And having pictures be beautiful, that’s important to me.”

Through her images, the young artist wants others to see genuine beauty and truth, and perhaps dispel any notions others might have of different people, places and things.

“One day I hope to travel the world and to capture places many have assumed conceptions about,” she said. “Africa, for example. People see famine, poverty. I want to travel and to capture the happiness within the lives of these people, however brief they may be, and offer a window into their world.”

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Bidleman’s work can be seen at:www.flickr.com/livbidleman or www.oliviabidleman.zzl.org.