Unfortunately, due to the dance competition I wrote about previously, I was not able to make Snapshot Day. Therefore, I will be reflecting on the image I submitted for Snapshot Day instead.

The picture I took (attached here), was taken on a LIRR ride going from Atlantic Ave to Oceanside, NY. It was a peaceful Sunday, and I was on my way home to have dinner with my family when I saw this sight. Although it was two months into the school semester, I can’t say it truly hit me that I was going to school in New York City, a global attraction, until that moment.

Although it seems insignificant, that picture really captured what I thought was going to be my experience in Brooklyn. The way the sunlight hit the buildings, halal carts lining the street near a meatpacking place, it finally hit me that I was in for a culturally enriching experience in my next 4 years.

And I have to say, the end of the first semester, I am beyond grateful for the opportunities Macaulay has given me to expand my knowledge of New York City.

**I can’t find the picture I submitted for Snapshot Day, so I guess you’ll just have to imagine it!! :)**

Macaulay Snapshot Day was a great day for the entire Macaulay Class of 2019 to share our view and perspective of the Great New York City. It is amazing to see such varying perspectives of the city that we are all a part of. It was exciting to be inside of the New York Historical Society, and what really caught my eye was the toy train running on the tracks over my head.

Once I got to the actual gallery of photos, I was a little confused at the photos and the times. Why was it in military time? And why were the times so precise?

Nevertheless, it was a fun day to look at some of the seemingly professional work of the class of 2019. Snapshot was a very enjoyable event, and it’s a great opportunity for average students to get some recognition.

Upon entering the Macaulay Snapshot Exhibition, I thought that something completely different would be shown. Later on, when I saw how the pictures were organized, I was somewhat surprised, and disoriented even. The images were supposed to be organized by time frame, throughout the day, but unfortunately, not all of them were. For example, even though my picture was of a sunset (and the title gave it away too), it was placed on the 7 am board. When I later found out why, one of the curators said that since it involved the sun, it could have been taken in the morning. Another critique I had was that the title of the images was not provided. Although the image is still there, I believe that the title gives the viewer a sense of what the photographer thought of the photo. Finally, as for my photo, I have to say that it was difficult choosing what photo to submit. Since I have taken multiple photos that day, I did not know which one would be more appropriate. The reason I chose the current one was that it took multiple attempts to take, so that the waves were positioned in such a way, which made them seem “angry”. Because I do not want to skew anyone’s interpretation of the photo, I will not talk more about it. After all, the viewer is responsible for determining the purpose of the image, and the artist should not influence their opinion.

One of the things I was really excited for when starting the school year was having my own photograph displayed in a real museum. I have grown up around artists and I love to paint myself, so when the opportunity came to curate the exhibit, I knew I wanted to do it right away. I didn’t go every week, but the weeks I did go were extremely fun. The first week Nadiah asked all of us for ideas for the exhibit. We came up with pretty extravagant ideas that could never realistically be implemented, but it was great to use our imagination and come up with a concept that worked and could be done in the time we had. The work was extremely tedious. We had to separate the little pictures into themes and match them with the bigger pictures. We then had to label each photograph with the right person’s name. There were over 300 photographs! The photo that I submitted was a picture of the Greenwood Cemetery. The focus of the photo was on the leaves that made a border around the edges of the photo and the graves were out of focus in the background. I chose this picture because I really love Greenwood Cemetery. It is peaceful, beautiful, and holds a lot of history. The picture itself didn’t clearly show the graves, it focused more on the leaves, which I also liked because it took a few seconds to register that the background was of graves. Overall, I really liked the idea of Snapshot day. It is interesting to see how many different types of pictures a group of students can come up with in one day, and it shows just how diverse and interesting our city really is!