Freestyle Academy proudly presents

Resolute: A Senior Listener Lyric Photographic Diptych by Avery Tan (2019)

My lyrical essay, “Swathes,” concerns an Indian immigrating to America in early adulthood; in writing this essay, I learned more about fighting the feeling of displacement in order to succeed and become integrated into the “land of opportunity.”

I chose my photograph to exemplify this passage from my essay: “You can make something of yourself, a firecracker lying in wait.” The viewer sees past the chain fence located in the foreground of the photograph, representing a person’s desire to leave the confines of where they currently are to expand their scope of possibilities. I shot the photograph from a low angle to emphasize the formidability of the fences, or the challenges belying the path to fulfilling one’s dreams. The subject has just started their walk through the passageway, and her position in the light communicates the hope of immigrants as they begin their own journeys. Although the end of the passageway (which also is the opening to beyond) is narrow, the prospect of being integrated into a larger institution – the building in the background – is great enough to propel my subject forward.

My photograph was edited in Adobe Photoshop. I first used the magnetic lasso tool to select my subject and transported the selection to another layer. I then applied a black and white filter to the photograph, specifically targeting reds so that the details of the fence more visible. Using the gradient map tool, I lightened the area around my subject to create a vignette. To ensure that my colorized selection would not look too garish, I desaturated the subject. Additionally, there was a distracting spot of light that drew attention away from the subject, so I used the color complement of the spot and layered multiple brush strokes with varying opacity to tone it down. The font I chose is block-y to affirm the resoluteness of immigrants to succeed. I used the transformation warp tool to place my text. Related website
Visitors 479