LOVE AND FEAR
No matter where you go and what you do in life, it’s always important to remember where you’re from and where you’ve been. I believe this is true of physical, as well as mental and emotional places.
This image was designed with many of the things I love about my past in mind. Aside from the background sand image and the image of myself running, all the photos are my own, holding my love of photography in mind. The flowers forming the bridge between my two selves, as well as the images of the Eiffel Tower and Big Ben, were all captured during my trip to the United Kingdom and France, two of my favorite places. The portrait of me amid the flowers reminds me of my love for running. The camera hidden in the flower bridge is another call back to my love of photography. I’ve walked hundreds of miles in the sneakers, having owned the same pair since I was twelve years old.
As college students, I think we all struggle sometimes—or most of the time— with overbearing amounts of stress. Perhaps the struggle is with the time crunch of having too many assignments and too few hours in the day to complete them, or from the social pressure to feel like you can do everything, or even your own intrusive thoughts of worrying about something stupid you said years ago that doesn’t matter any more than a poor grade on a second grade math test.
Whatever it is, we all deal with stress to some degree. This self portrait was based on the feeling of falling and drowning in worries and stress.
