Student Profile: Trinity
Last year, during the pandemic, students had the option to take classes completely virtually. Trinity, one of my AP 2D Design students, chose that option. She did not have access to a school camera, but instead, created her entire project on her mobile phone—all of the image capture, editing and compositing were completed on her phone. Her work taught me that equipment can be such a minor part of creating beautiful, impactful photography. She used the tools she had at hand, and she won a Scholastic national silver key award with her portfolio. In some ways, the limits of the equipment pushed her in creative directions she might not have gone in if she had had access to more options.
Trinity’s Statement:
“I chose to focus my investigation on overlooked beauty in the black community because it is often ignored and unappreciated all because of one color—brown. I played with digital manipulation, reflections, color, symmetrical/asymmetrical balance within my photos to study the beauty within the black community. I used nature, multiple exposures and digital compositing. I explored elements of hair—texture, length style and color, and I created a new hairpiece. I emphasized brown in many of my images to show earth’s most overlooked and natural color. I experimented with contrasting colors and black and white to represent the negative labels the world has given us versus what we see and believe within ourselves. I experimented with things we see daily, but don’t pay attention to often such as flowers to represent the faces of my models. ”
