My series of photos had to contain a significant meaning beyond just a random collection. I wanted to connect all of my photos somehow. At first I was indecisive to what my theme should be, but I definitely wanted to show a strong emotion throughout all of my photos. At first, I used a feeling of sadness in all of the images because it emphasized my theme clearly. I stuck with this idea until my first photo shoot, I wasn’t satisfied with how my picture looked. I tried to express a sad emotion in my face but I couldn’t make it seem believable.

 I knew this theme wasn’t going to work for me, I forced an emotion to come out and clearly it didn’t looked good. While preparing for my next photo shoot, I realized instead of expressing an emotion of sadness, I should convey the opposite. I knew that by showing a positive feeling, my future photos would feel more raw and more convincing. I changed my future photos to appear in a more lighter tone, I chose the theme of happiness.

Almost everything was all set, but I was still missing my overall theme. What should I capture throughout all my photos that expresses a positive tone? I came to the conclusion that I would take photos about how I live my daily life. This theme will incorporate all the ideas I planned before, also I could take photos of various different things that I interact with daily. From there, my mind expanded with different ideas for my new theme. For my future photo shoots with my brand new theme, I incorporated a lot of variety in each photo, none of them are similar to another except the overall vibrant tones in most of my photos.

In my photo series, I included a variety of different shots that represent who I am. The first photo is a basic portrait of myself, I wanted this photo to be very unique from the rest since it is like an introduction of my series. I am very proud of this photo and I thank my partner Sameer Makanjee who was the photographer. In particular, I really like the lighting of the photo, the sun is shining on my face and I am glowing. My second photo goes more in depth to what I do for fun. The picture depicts me posing with my bicycle, this was also part of the weekly theme photo where I had recreate a famous picture from the past, I wanted to recreate a picture that not a lot of people will recreate. My idea was to recreate a picture of Michael Collins riding his famous high Nelly bike. I planned to bike ride with my friend so I told him to take my picture. It turned out really good and I decided to add it to my photo series. I especially like how I copied Collins pose in the picture and the image itself, it was in black and white so I decided to do the same as well. 

The third picture is from a photo series where everyone had the choice to decide their own theme. My weekly theme was community, I really wanted to incorporate this weekly theme of community to my overall theme of my life. To take these series of photos, I went to my favorite place in the world, 90th Street Jackson Heights. This is a small community but with full of culture. I love eating at the Colombian bakery, picking fruits from the fruit stand and especially buying the Mexican candies for my birthday every year. My favorite childhood memories take place in this location. I took pictures of many workers in 90th street Jackson Heights, but after looking through the shots, one picture stood out to me the most. I chose this picture in particular because of how vibrant the fruits looked and the angle of the photo. My favorite aspect is how the photo is a candid of the fruit stand manager talking to someone. I really like how it isn’t staged or planned, I just took it randomly and I am satisfied of how it turned out to look.

For my final photo, I desired to pour my heart into this piece. I needed to add a family member in my photo series and I didn’t know who to include at first, but as I came home, I knew exactly who to take a picture of. My little brother, Edward, means a lot to me. To start off, he is the youngest sibling in my family, since he is the youngest, he is the most malleable. As an older brother, I pledge to protect him in any way possible. I teach him new things everyday such as how to be kind to others and show respect to everyone. My goal is to see him grow up and become the most loving person I’ve met. Edward is the beginning of a generation who will impact the world, and he needs someone who will help him lead to a great path. I took a portrait photo of my brother for my final shot, he is standing outside holding a mini bouquet of flowers and looking down at the camera. I meant to take the picture in this angle to contrast my first photo. In the first picture I am looking up at the camera in the bright sun while Edward is looking down at the camera in the sunset. Overall, my photo series depicts how I want my life to be looked at, it tells a story from the beginning to the end, it is true bonding experience involving the one and only Eric Garcia. I hope this collection will help people look at life in a positive way. Life should be lived with joy, in every hardship, happiness will overcome it. View life with eyes of love and healing.