It’s a pretty hue-ge world

Nikki Hatzopoulos, iNews Reporter|January 23, 2023

This photo essay is a depiction of different objects, nature, and animals around the world that all portray different colors. I selected images from my travels to states around the country, as well as from my annual summer trips to Greece. Each photo has a specific color that embodies a monochromatic feel to it. The photos are arranged in order of the rainbow, with included “filler” images that include more than one color in order to act as a transition. This photo essay is meant to display the variety of different colors around the world, and how they can be found in everyday occurrences. A variety of close-ups, wide shots, moody lighting, and light-hearted lighting are used to invoke a different set of emotions with each photo.

The first selections of photos are red, AKA the first color of the rainbow. Red can be a difficult color to spot in your everyday life, but nonetheless serves as one of the most interesting. Red can invoke feelings of anger, madness, and in some cases, love. Red is one of the most powerful colors, and finding photos with a red atmosphere allowed me to think back on a staple experience or memory in my life.

Ariana Grande, NYC Madison Square Garden: 2019 concert. Red lights submerged an audience-filled room — one last feeling of liberation at a concert just a few months before the first COVID outbreak.
Outdoor entrance to a restaurant in Afytos, Greece: 2021. Walking down a twisted, cobblestone path and was met with red buckets hanging from a stone wall.
A rainy night in NYC and the Moulin Rouge musical on Broadway: 2022. The red lighting added to the ambiance of the storm outside the theater.

Transitioning into orange, I find that unlike red, it is a much easier color to notice on a day to day basis. From the way the sun sets or rises each day, to the brick buildings around New York City, orange holds a rustic and nostalgic feel to it. Although it is a commonly disliked color, I find that it can embody a very homey and cozy set of emotions.

Orange tabby cats exploring a village in Halkidiki, Greece. They spent the next few minutes playing on the cushions of the restaurant and eagerly awaiting leftovers from a customer’s table.
Just a few hours after sunrise on a calm street in Chelsea, NYC: 2018. The orange steam pipe perfectly complemented the sun-lit building behind it!
Audience filled room in Radio City Music Hall, Conan Gray concert: 2022. A view that was up close and personal with floor seats and bright, orange lights.
Commute on an empty Uptown 3 train during the pandemic: Orange and yellow seats are a staple in NYC trains. It was such a foreign concept seeing an empty train during rush hour.

Yellow is a color typically associated with happiness, joy, and positive emotions. On a day to day basis, yellow is a very commonly seen color. From subway platforms, sun rays, and street lighting when nighttime falls, yellow is seen almost anywhere.

Yellow sunset through a cloudy sky over brick buildings in South Brooklyn: 2019. A typically plain view transformed into one of the prettiest I had seen in a long time.
Half painted, yellow train station beam on the platform of the Uptown 1 Train: Houston St. The train was approaching the station after a long wait for its arrival on my way home.
Classic, yellow NYC subway platform on 59 St, Columbus Circle. Social distancing signs on platforms were a new addition at the time, especially ones for horses.
Yellow street lighting, and green graffiti in Ioannina, Greece. Walking down the street with closed down store-fronts during midnight hours on every block.

The next few photos symbolize the color green. Being one of my favorite colors, I find myself always searching for parts of the world that contain almost any shade of it. Luckily enough, our nature filled world is a perfect opportunity to come across plants of every variation of green — therefore making the selection for this photos easier than others. Green can often be associated with growth, prosperity, and hope.

Green platform beam at 116 St, Downtown 1 train: A familiar view every morning before my commute to school. The beams used to be much more vibrant, whereas now they are dull, and worn out.
Twisted green vines tightly hug a tilted tree trunk in Shore Road Park, Brooklyn. Taken just moments before sunset, the orange lighting that shone on the leaves shortly after made the view ten times better.
Green eyes of a stray cat complement surrounding plants in Halkidiki, Greece. The bushes were a cool, safe place for a cat to settle on a hot, summer day.
Flying over green crop fields and the Danube River. An eight hour flight finally came to an end as we approached Vienna.
A calm river flows through green filled mountains and a bright blue sky in Voidomatis River, Ioannina, Greece: 2019. I had to stand on the edge of an at least 50 foot drop to capture the moment.

Of all the colors, blue is a symbol of serenity, calmness, and comfort. Serving as another color seen every single day, blue can be found every time you look up at the sky or come across a body of water. Oftentimes, when the day transitions to dusk and eventually to nightfall, the prettiest shades and variations of blue emerge.

Blue car, blue sky, and a splash of greenery in Voidomatis River, Ioannina, Greece: 2021. The empty streets made for great parking, and a great opportunity to capture a shot in the middle of the road!
Parking lot… but for trains: Stillwell Avenue, Brooklyn during a blue dusk. I had always wondered where trains went when they were done operating.
Bright blue fire escapes stand out against a brick building in SoHo: 2021. Captured just a few blocks away from iSchool as I was walking to school!
Pier 57, rooftop Alec Benjamin concert: 2022. Blue strobing lights and smoke encapsulated the stage and band. Minutes later, it started pouring!
Full moon against a dark blue sky during a Brooklyn, summer night during quarantine. Many windows were still illuminated in almost every house; nobody seemed to be sleeping.

Purple can depict a lighthearted and romantic energy, and holds a feeling of comfort alongside blue. Purple is not typically displayed in parts of our world aside from sunsets, but when I do come across it, I always take the opportunity to snap a photo.

Yet another shot from the Ariana Grande concert at Madison Square Garden: 2019. As opposed to the red lighting, we had a blue and purple atmosphere.
NYC nights and purple lights encapsulate the tip of the Empire State Building on the 230 Fifth Rooftop: 2018. The clouds had made the night sky look as if it were full of smoke, adding to the effect of the image.
Radio City Music Hall, just another capture from the Conan Gray concert: 2022. Purple strobes transitioned into pink lights as one of his most popular hits was performed.

Lastly, I decided to include two pink images. Although it is not a color traditionally seen in the rainbow, I find that it is a perfect addition to the rest of the colors. Seeing even a sliver of pink in the sky can label an ordinary sunset as something unique and picturesque; and seeing a pink building on the street is sure to catch your eye as opposed to a regularly seen color.

Cotton candy sunsets are the prettiest in South Brooklyn: 2020. The purple sky and pink clouds made everybody I was with stop and capture the moment while it was still there. Unfortunately, it was gone in a matter of minutes!
Pink tattoo parlor on a popular street in Provincetown, Massachusetts: 2020. A typically busy street was near empty during the summer after the first COVID outbreak.

Rather than a continuous story, this array of images should have allowed you to almost feel a rollercoaster of different emotions, and an understanding that although each photo is very different, they all have a common relation: color. With this photo essay, I urge my audience to take a closer look at the sights they come across every sing day, and how they can each embody and symbolize a specific color.