School: Lane Technical High School
Grade: 12
Description: I’ve spent the last 6 years of my life at Lane Tech–from 7th grade to 12th grade. I’m leaving in 6 months. I was born and raised in Chicago. I’m leaving in 8 months. This series was about encapsulating the preemptive grief of leaving behind what I have known for so long to venture on to the next stage of my life. I took these utilizing frame within a frame, a compositional device that, here, evokes a feeling of transition and separation. The viewer feels like a voyeur in these images; the moment occurs without the subject’s knowledge. It’s a strange feeling knowing that the city and school that I love will go on uninterrupted without me there. I wanted this series to capture that feeling of isolation and mourning that comes with the inevitable transition that every high school senior feels in some capacity, whether they’re going to college, working full time, or joining the military. Birds on a Wire deals with feelings of exclusion, yet also the comfort that you are not essential to the happenings of the city and the people. As much as it is my city, it’s not My city. The bench is full. I wouldn’t fit in there anyway. This series depicts and conveys conflicting symbols and feelings surrounding the notion of change and leaving the nest. I thought this was apt since I have those same conflicting feelings. Chicago will always be home to me, but I am ready to move forward.
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