I grew up with Massachusetts winters, so the prospect of having what I would normally call “autumn leaves” in the middle of December is very strange to me. Nevertheless, I’ve come to accept the out-of-whack Mountain View weather, so I wanted to capture some of that out-of-place-ness in this photo.
For whatever reason, the first thing that came to mind when I thought of “color” was this metal art piece behind City Hall in downtown Mountain View. It’s on the way to the library, so I see it every time I walk over there, and I’ve always really liked it. I still like the original colored version of the photo, but the black and white turned out nice as well in my opinion.
This prompt called for friends and family, but lucky for me, those mean the same thing! That sentiment may be a little corny, but my family and I are all really close and I’m so grateful for that. My mom, Annie, passed away when I was 10, but I wanted to make sure she was still in the picture with us, so I had my little brother hold up a photo of her. When I was 13, my brother, my dad, and I all moved to Mountain View to move in with my dad’s girlfriend, Elina, and since then, the five of us have all been together. I feel really lucky to be a part of such a happy blended family!
To me, my culture means a lot of different things. I wasn’t sure at first how to interpret the prompt, but I decided to capture Turkish glass art, which captures both my Turkish identity, something I’m very proud of and want to learn more about, as well as art, something that is a big part of my life and my family’s lives. This dining set includes a lot of symbols and colors that are really important in Turkish culture, such as pomegranates and deep blues. It’s in a glass display case right in front of our kitchen, and I always love passing by and admiring the work inside, specifically the plate in the middle.
For this weeks theme of aging, I decided to photograph my stuffed elephant, Elephy (a genius name, I know). I’ve had Elephy since I was 7 months old, and all those years together have definitely left her a little worn down. She was bright pink and fully stuffed when we first got her, and now she’s pale and floppy. I think she represents both aging in the physical and emotional sense, as she has signs of physical aging, but she’s also been with me as I’ve aged and grown over the years.
This week, we challenged to create a compelling story using only shadows. I took a picture of my dad posing outside, and although I don’t think it’s super compelling, I still like how it turned out.
This is the first page of my new sketchbook I got for my Birthday. I’ve been really busy with school and work these past few months, so I really haven’t had a good chance to just sit down and draw, which is one of my favorite things to do, so I wanted to take this picture to hopefully symbolize a new beginning for me this year where I’ll have more time to myself to fill up the rest of this book!
I was admittedly a little stumped about what to do for this prompt at first, considering my hometown of Holyoke, Massachusetts is all the way across the country, but I ended up deciding to capture our old family car’s license plate, which both me and my little brother have had hanging on our bedroom doors since we moved to Mountain View.
For this prompt, I initially thought of photographing my step-mom and my dad, but I decided that would be a little boring so I instead opted to capture my step-brother, Eli, lovingly enjoying a nice slice of sourdough bread.
For this photo, I decided to capture both physical warmth and emotional warmth. To me, this picture provides both physical warmth from the candles in the Jack-O-Lanterns, as well as emotional warmth, as it represents a happy memory of carving pumpkins with my little brothers for my last halloween as a kid.