With the click of a button, there is a piece that can mean everything that matters to whole groups of people, in the photograph there is the portrayal of victory, satisfaction, peace, and intensity. Regardless of what moment I have captured, I know that when I do so I will be capturing those moments that care to me and those around me. Whether it be the power of a tearful performance or the tranquility of water flowing through the air, I will capture moments of power and weakness without blur and with clear and loving satisfaction. These moments are not just literal points in time, but points in hundreds of people’s journeys in their lives, journeys to become and find peace. When I take a photo, with the click of a button, there is assurance that what you felt, was real. With photos, art, and passion, you can capture so many moments of your own mine and others.
Bio:
Juan Vazquez was born in Oakland, California, he is currently enrolled in Mountain View High School, with Dual enrollment in Foothill College for Photography and Animation. He has created all kinds of creative works, showing off plays he’s written and directed at Festivals, papers, and videos he has produced at the Journalism Education Association, and can be seen on the Broadcast show “Next Week Now” at MVHS. He has received the Motherlode Drama Festival’s special recognition for Scriptwriting for his show “The Grind.” He has also worked on many other student-run projects, such as in his Film and Digital Media Classes. Juan was also recognized by his school in the 2024 Latinx Student Awards for his work in Performing Arts and Tech.
Music Recording Project- Sailor Song Again
Photo Work
For this project, we were tasked with applying skills and resources we have to develop a music recording, mixing, and mastering. The goal was to use our music studio to produce music which we and or artists would collaborate on to make an excellent piece of work. While we were given a list of musicians we coud workm with in the local area, i wanted to instead find musicans on my own. i did this by looking around in my own circles of friends and aquantinices and found several excellent musians, in particular I found an award winning theatre preformer in the MVHS theatrical program.
I took this photo at the very end of my personal favorite song from the musical “If it’s true” a song about quesitoning those in power, and needing an answer if its indeed true that there is no hope for the characters. This photo is the very last moment of the song, where the main character, Orpheus, asks the question one last time “Is it true what they say?”
There are many strong moments within this song, ith any qeustions and stamtnets which I believe invoke strong feelings espically in the world today.
“I believe that we are many I believe that they are few. And It isn’t for the few to tell the many what is true.”
I love this photo, it captures the sorrow, desperation and even hope for both Orpheus and the many workers around him. the workers, covered in darkness, with sorrow in their faces yet with hope in their eyes, with the reflection of bright light, rich out into the bright spot known as Orpheus, who himself is in great distress, with all their hands reaching out and his vocie beggng the same question, this photo invokes, to me, a martyr who is a beacon for those around him, the many against the few. Here are a few other photos I love:
Documentary
Once being able to improve our skills in the mockumentary, we were able to make our own documentaries. Due to my busy schedule outside of Film I had concepts which I wanted to work on, however I kept being pushed away from different groups. Just days before we were supposed to have a final cut, our teacher gave me permission to work on my own project on my own. I chose to do it about stagecraft, a class and group I hold a lot of love and passion for, and I was able to contact quickly, which was needed given the insane turn around. In just three days I had a full edit finished. I am extremely proud as while at point it may not be the highest quality, given its turnaround and solo nature I am very proud of the assignment
B&W Mandala
In this assignment we were told to make a Mandala that would show our identity, I chose to make this Mandala this way to emphasize how much we, myself in particular, can bury our feelings or emotions, even the best ones, out of fear of being shamed. I titled it Buried as the emotions and imagery in the drawing are literally buried one on top of the other.
Some details I wanted to emphasize as I made this mandala was creating several layers, horizontally, that felt completely separate and difficult to compare to one another, the idea I had coming into it was layering it like how people imagine heaven, earth, and hell are layered on one another, or how the world itself is layered…or how onions are layered. At the top are waves, and I wanted to start with the top layer being a terrible ocean to show something literally below the surface with the rest of the art.
As an artist I liked how easy the process could be, only requiring a few movements of the brush to create shapes, but I also enjoyed making the process as intentional and purposeful as possible, to create a vision people could hopefully see.
The coloring is all representative of both, my favorite colors and those around me. I have a strong affinity and love for greens, oranges, and purples and wanted to include them as much as possible. A goal of mine was that as you get closer and closer to the center, there is more intensity in the colors and the contrast between them. I chose the central color as a super light tan for those who focus more intensely on it. At a glance the center may look white but once you fully focus there is indeed still color- life- within.