ARTS FEST 2021
PHOTO ESSAYS
ANNA CHEN
Making food is a hobby that I picked up over summer during quarantine. For my photo essay, I wanted to capture the process of cooking. I chose to take photos of a Japanese curry with fried chicken recipe that my sister and I have made many times in the past. While editing my photos, I tried to tone down the yellows in all the images, choosing instead to give all my photos a slight purple tone to them instead. While taking the photos, I mostly adjusted aperture to ensure that the subject of my photos would stand out despite the sometimes busy backgrounds. I also adjusted shutter speed to ensure that my photos, particularly the ones when the curry was actually cooking would be clear.
LILY GOLDSMITH
Through this photo essay, I wanted to encapsulate a few of the fairly mundane activities around the house that have become everyday rituals as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. A little over a year ago, it felt like I was always on the go – walking across campus to my classes, meeting up with friends, taking the train or metro, and feeling very independent and adventurous. Now, I live in my hometown of Baltimore, Maryland in an apartment with my partner and a formerly-stray cat that we just adopted....
ANDREW JIN
These are a collection of photos I took throughout this semester. I took these photos to convey what makes me calm and at ease. I have always had a habit of going on long walks alone early in the morning or late into the evening to reduce stress, which is reflected in the photos I took. I have this habit because it helps me get away from the stress and loudness of being at home, and because it is quiet outside early in the morning and late at night. I took all of the photos with my Olympus four-thirds camera.
ANTHONY SANCHEZ
For this photo essay, I chose to capture something that has been consistent in my life for the past four years and that has been my part-time job at Chick-fil-A. To me, getting to work here has offered me several opportunities, experiences, and taught me a lot about myself. Throughout my time there, there have been several changes and shifts; however, some things have remained consistent from when I started back in July 2017 to now. As for my approach to photography and editing for this photo essay, I was interested in conveying the vibrant ambiance this place exudes through its food, service, and people. I captured each image in a day-in-the-life manner, where I chose certain moments, people, or things of my shift that showcase what has been consistently made me excited to work there. With Lightroom editing, I made each image intentionally warmer and/or vibrant to coherently address the restaurant’s vibe.
DARYL PERRY
My photo essay captures things and people in my life who bring me solace, especially during the past year. This topic came naturally to me because through spending time with mother, listening to music, playing guitar and sewing with my ever-growing fabric stash, I’ve been able to calm my nerves during a really chaotic time. When I think of comfort, I think of brightness and warmth, which is what I want my photos to reflect. In Lightroom, I adjusted the color temperature to make things warmer, and brightened up all of my photos. Most of them have cropping and a shallow depth of field to guide the viewer’s eyes on where I want them to focus.
EUNICE OH
“An Artist’s Diary” documents my journey and relationship with art, from purchasing my very first sketchbook, to my year and a half hiatus due to art block, to where I am now under a new artist identity, FLORIVN. Art has always been part of my life and drawing for almost 10 years, I wanted to reflect on my growth so far. My artist diary will never have a definite ending because I’m constantly discovering new things about my passion and falling in love with it everyday, but I wish to share my story. I hope this inspires other artists as well, both beginner and experienced.
IVY SI HUNAG
In my Chinese culture there is a phrase “good things come in pairs,” so I chose to take photos of pairs of items that bring joy or good luck. The symbolic meaning of number two include balance and equalization. In a time like Covid, learning how to balance time, energy, and emotions are crucial for one’s well being. Each of the pictures also contain symbolic ideas from my culture. For example, apples are “ping guo” in Chinese, and “ping” means peace. Fish, “yu,” also means plentifulness, so I took a picture of Chinese knots with a pair of fish. I kept a consistent red/orange hue throughout to create a warm and nostalgic aesthetic. I incorporated techniques I learned in class such as using the rule of thirds, changing the shutter speed and aperture, and taking photos from different angles. I also went with a minimalistic approach to remind viewers of the need to appreciate the little things that bring us peace, joy, and happiness.
JAIDEN HANLEY
My photo essay is about an overlooked similarity between night and day. Typically daytime is bright and on a good day the sun is shining. However, nighttime is the absence of that brightness. Throughout my journey of taking these photographs, I noticed how prominent the clouds are in both the day and night. I grew up in an apartment in Baltimore City so I never took any nighttime walks to really notice and take in the appearance of clouds during the night. I feel privileged being on campus at the University of Maryland because it has allowed me to take in so many of these gentle aspects of the sky. I encourage those that see this to look up while you are outside a little more often because you might be captivated with what you see.
My collection of photos is meant to signify the great struggle that plants face due to the incessant progress of human civilization. Despite efforts to confine greenery in preference of industrial selfishness, the plants will always find a way to keep growing. Many of my photos were inspired by the recent indoorsiness of the world, which has tempted many to display more plants inside. This is all good and well if they take care of these creatures, but I wished to show the perspective of the plant. Stuck behind a window or constrained by a fence, still trying to catch the sun’s rays. I tried to make the plants appear “jealous” or “forlorn” that they are stuck inside, while the rest of nature is outside the window. Basically, this essay is about the relationship between plants and humans, and the superiority of nature. In all my pictures, I added a sepia layer and increased the warmth to indicate the unnaturalness of the scenes, but that it is still sunny. I also used some leading lines and rule of thirds, along with increased aperture.
ISABELLA CADIROLA
The spring weather has been so beautiful here at UMD. Because I was a freshman last year, I never got to see what Spring was like here since we all got sent home. I decided to focus my photo essay on “Springtime at UMD”. I didn’t have a set time fro when I was photographing, I wanted the photos to feel authentic, so I took these whenever I was walking around campus and noticed the nature was especially beautiful. I also have a couple portraits and photos of birds I’ve found.
The theme of my photo essay is appreciating the little aspects of nature that are often looked past. I think people often stop to look at or photograph nature when it is obviously and objectively pretty, like a sunset, a mountain, or a tree. It is easy to look past the smaller things that are actually really pretty when you stop to appreciate them. I wanted this photo essay to follow the story of how noticing just one pretty moment can lead to noticing so many others. I chose to focus on images that represented a sort of pattern or design because I think it is so interesting how nature can create patterns and designs without any human contribution. I found this to be the case with things like small plants, grass, and tree branches. As I took these pictures I decided I wanted to edit them in a way to enhance the design-like appearance of the photos. I ultimately decided to play with the coloring of the photos because I felt like it gave the images a graphic element that emphasized the ways that nature can be abstracted.
VICTORIA SHUMAKOVICH
As the weather gets nicer, the perfect way to spend a spring day is to go on a hike. Ever since quarantine started hiking has been a savior of my sanity and has helped me deal with stress tremendously. My photos are meant to portray the perfect day that my friends and I spent as we took a break from school and went on a hike. These photos are broken into three sections. The first section is portraying the day before the hike begins, the second section is the hike itself, and lastly the day after the hike is over.