Spinning out of Control
This photo is from my freshman year -- it represents the feeling of stress and spinning out of control. As you can probably tell, this is a digital image, as most of my early work is.
Sunken Pride
This picture, from my sophomore year, is the first one I took that centers around social justice. I wanted to create a photograph that symbolizes the toils that LGBTQ+ people face in our society, as represented by the rainbow dripping down the model’s face as tears. At the same time, I wanted to convey a sense of hope, which is hopefully reflected by the look in the model’s eyes.
Thoughts and Prayers
The next three images are a part of a digital protest series. This photo was taken at a March 4 Our Lives Protest which was in advocacy for common-sense gun legislation. This photograph is really personal to me because I believe the complacency and inaction behind the phrase “thoughts and prayers” is one of, if not the, biggest challenges society is facing today. And while this photograph captures and calls out that culture of inaction, it also offers hope in the sea of people standing up for something that they believe in.
On that note, the fading sea of people also speaks to the power of the physical body in protest because by simply taking up space, you can make colossal impacts.
Desperate Reach
This next digital protest protest photo is a bit of a contrast from the last one, in that it represents the solidarity of protest. While there are swarms of people advocating change in protests, at the end of the day, it comes down to an individual making the brave choice to be there, raise their hand, and stand up for what is right.
Looking Over
This photo was taken last summer from a Black Lives Matter protest. The systemic racial injustice in the US is, frankly, horrifying, and it’s almost impossible to find hope in the never ending cycle of police brutality, economic oppression, and pure blatant injustice woven into the fabric of our country. This picture, to me at least, offers a glimpse of hope: you can see a young black girl looking intently at a middle-aged black man which represents the hope in future generations…if we continue marching, putting pressure on our government, and teaching the next generation the essentiality of justice, maybe we can build a better society.
Generations of Change
This photo is one of three film protest photos. This one is similar to the last one photograph, capturing the same girl and man, and if you were wondering, at the protest, I did bring both cameras with me which was a bit bulky, but worth it in the end. I think the parallel fields that the girl and man are on in this photo cements the sense that all generations have to contribute to making change. It isn’t just young people -- we all have to pitch in.
Overcome
This film photograph was taken at a Black Lives Matter open-mic this summer. After one woman’s speech, the crowd began singing “we shall overcome” which is why I overlayed those words in the sky. The song “We Shall Overcome” is actually a gospel song, so overlaying it in the sky seemed appropriate, as a reminder of the partially religious roots of the civil rights movement.
Masked Revolution
This film photograph was also taken at the open-mic, and it serves as a marker of the times… times in which COVID was rampant yet people were still willing to risk their health for the cause of justice. As you have probably noticed, my entire protest series —both on film and digital— was black and white. For me, B&W protest imagery strips the photos down to their essential meaning, leaving out any distractions.
Ball and Chain of the Past
My senior year AP concentration is done with the tin-type wet plate process that was invented in the 1800s. I love the meticulous process of making a tin-type, and how time-consuming each photograph is to make. I feel like I’m a part of history when I make a tin-type, and the timeless look of the images captivates me. My concentration is conceptual in nature, centering around limbo which is a state of suspension, an uncertain period of waiting, and being neither here nor there.
In the context of my narrative, limbo articulates the present—a time in which you are suspended and stuck, not able to jump into the future or indulge in the past. Living in the present moment, in limbo, can make you feel trapped… you are ripped apart by an idealism of the future and the ball and chain of the past, the latter of which is represented by this photo. To articulate limbo, all of my images are taken underwater. When a body is underwater, it is in a physical limbo—neither above the surface nor underneath it; it is suspended. In order to take the photographs underwater, I took them with a digital underwater camera then transferred the images onto a computer. I then took a tintype of the computer screen.
Illusion
This photograph articulates how someone can get caught in limbo with the chains wrapped around the model’s leg. It also hints at the facade of freedom one might feel when they are in limbo.
Caught in Limbo
This photograph, obviously, further articulates the feeling of being caught in limbo. As you can see, I tied ropes around the model, imitating the suffocating feeling of being in limbo.
Ripped Apart
This photograph was actually the first I took of the series, and it is meant to symbolize how, when you are in limbo, you feel ripped apart by worrying about the future and dwelling on the past. It is almost as if you are in hell with fire raining from the skies, and coincidentally, the word limbo can also be used to refer to one of the circles of hell, as described in Dante’s Inferno.
A Jewish Resurrection
This image is probably my personal favorite because it has layers of personal meaning for me. The star-necklace, how it falls in the model’s mouth, and big, billowy shirt that the model is wearing were ideas that I drew from my favorite work of art by Luca Guadinino. The photo also represents how religion fits into the idea of limbo. In many religions, including Judaism, one’s life is the intermediary between creation and afterlife; in other words, life itself is a type of limbo.
Falling Again
This photograph is the first of my concentration that represents the feeling of being freed from limbo; as I continue to make tin-types this semester, I will focus on making more images that represent this feeling. So in essence, part one of the concentration was about being caught in limbo, and part two will be about escaping, or rather embracing, limbo.
