Category — Artistic Encounters

My theme for the street photography project is American dream. I want to express my feeling towards American dream that doesn’t exist anymore. Throughout my photographs, I try to tell the viewer the hardship of immigrants, came to find a better life, in the New York City. With the ideology of American dream, these immigrants, who were doctors and businessmen in their old country, came to America only to find themselves washing dishes and selling fake merchandise off the street. I also connected to the new immigrants because my parent went through the same struggle. Living in a Chinese community myself, I want my photographs to be dark and serious. [Read more →]

This collage really represents me. It contains things that symbolizes my ideals and things that I feel are important. Some of the things that I decided to include were family, food and fashion. Although I do not consider my family to be “stereotypical” or “traditional” we do hold traditional values in very high regard. In addition to this we are very tight knit and we would sacrifice anything for family. Next is food. Food is something that links all of us. It is an important part of my family and I feel that the best way to connect to another culture is through their food. Other things that were important for me to include were a representation of travel, my interest in equestrian sports, and New York. Lastly I would like to mention the words that I included on my collage. “Bold” is meant to represent me. I like to think that I make bold decisions and I try to steer away from being a conformist. I like to be bold with my assertions and with my choices. “Empowered” represents many things for me. First, Baruch is empowering me to a better future. Next, it also represents my family’s attitude towards me. They never pressure me to do anything or be anything that I don’t want to be. I know many stereotypes about Asian parents pressuring their children to be doctors and lawyers, but I never received such pressure which I am grateful for. I think that this has empowered me to make my own decisions. Lastly, “Lady” is a word that represents manners and rules that I think all people, not just ladies, should follow. To be courteous to others. To be respectful of other people’s thoughts and opinions. To be humble and to realize that not everyone will think that you are the most amazing person to grace the earth (no matter what your mother tells you). FInally, always be yourself no matter what people think of you; it is impossible to please everyone and some people are just born miserable so don’t take it personal if they don’t like you.

One block, one park, many personalities

           Home to fashionistas, bookworms, figure skaters, weddings, or passionate moviegoers, Bryant Park is a melting plot attracting people of all ages, interests, nationalities, and countries. [Read more →]

[Read more →]

street-photography3

(Link to Movie)

I thought that this project was going to defeat me. I had no idea what to take pictures of. The only things that I had ever taken pictures of were people or major landmarks while on vacation. I had never taken pictures spontaneously or for the sake of making art. I had only had experience taking tacky, postcard-like photos of the Eiffel Tower, or the Coliseum. What did I know about being a “street photographer”? [Read more →]

My collage project is entitled Best on Earth and it focuses on the life advice I go by, and just the philosophies I would say everyone should go by. I took magazines like “National Geographic,” “National Adventure,” “Cosmopolitan”and looked through the pages. I cut out the phrases/pictures I really liked and put them on an oak tag to create my collage.

I believe that a person has to be the best he can be, and do the best he can do. A person should strive to achieve the highest, and “dream out loud.” I think we should all aspire to our dreams and never let anything bring us down. As one of my pictures says, “the world can’t weigh you down when you’re standing on top of it. ” [Read more →]

De Colores

Mantras

Egyptian Feline

“Color is my day-long obsession, joy and torment.” Claude Monet was a fine artist, actually a good bit better than fine and he could barely come to grips with unbridled possibility of color. It’s overwhelming, so much so that we tend to dismiss it. Photography is a terrific way to capture some of the inquisitiveness which makes us human. There are a few instances in which photography can show us little more than what we can view, but often photography reveals to us how little our eyes permit us to see.  Normally we don’t see things as they are; the familiar is forced into the background of our focus. The couch we are sitting on is no longer a collection of darks and lights, patterns and textures; it is simply a couch.  Even though we live in a world full of color, we often don’t appreciate how powerful colors are. We blend it into our minds and don’t notice the beauty of its affect. This project focuses solely on colors, not in one specific area, but in our environment. [Read more →]

Street photography is the art of observing glimpses of every day life, freezing them, and putting them on display. Why is this an art? Photography is an art because in a sense it is subjective, and there is a huge element of creativity that is part of it. A photographer must see past what the naked eye sees. He or she must differentiate between something that is striking versus something that is plain. He or she must see colors not just as a characteristic of an object, but as a part of the whole image. Nowadays, taking a picture with a camera can be as easy as a click of a button, but it takes someone with creativity and insight to capture a genuinely good image. When I took on my own street photography project, I realized just how difficult taking a picture really is. [Read more →]

[Attempting to upload slideshow]

The photos presented were taken at three separate locations at three different times.  The ones that were taken first are the prominently orange photos, those littered with utility poles and water towers, were taken on the way back from LBI during an early summer sunset.  I gasped at the colors flooding the car and related to my mother how much I love telephone wires.  In response she fished my camera out of the back and handed it over.  I clicked the last of the sun’s fading rays into the memory card and dubbed the collection of blurred telephone wires “pretty jersey” in tribute to New Jersey’s often discounted and ignored beauty.  The set is full of traffic lights and pick-up trucks, the highlight being a perfectly placed water tower, which was well within my camera’s grasp.  [Read more →]

Collage

The title of my collage is “Eurotrip”. The reason I named it this was because the subject of the college is the trip I made with my family to Europe this past summer. We visited Paris, three cities in Belgium, and Amsterdam. I included little pieces of memories and things/ places I enjoyed most, mainly from Paris and Belgium. Instead of putting the combination of photos and objects on plain paper, I decided to make the background a map of central Paris. It is colorful and catches the eye, and gives the background much more meaning than a simple, colored paper. [Read more →]