The Introduction

In today’s day and age, most people carry their phones with them everywhere as they are constantly able to capture images of the moments occurring in front of them with ease. Especially as a college student, my peers and I attempt to rapidly display our daily lives through our social media channels, whether it be through a Snapchat story or an impromptu Instagram post. If I were to need to look back at a specific date or certain event for any reason, I can be sure that there will be some type of digital capture collecting imaginary dust in the depths of my camera roll.

This mentality is what sparked my idea for a photo book. I wanted to craft a place where I can take the pictures that may have previously sat collecting imaginary dust because perhaps, they weren’t “picture perfect” enough for social media, but what these pictures did do, is capture the important moments in time from another perspective. Attending our last year of college in the middle of a pandemic is undeniably not what anyone had planned, but we had a semester full of special moments and life-changing circumstances, and that is exactly what I wanted to show through this photo book.

I recognized that there was plenty of media content documenting the pandemic thus far, but I was eager to offer my audience an entirely different perspective. In retrospect, the menial occurrences that took place inside my little brick house in Ann Arbor thus far are not monumental, but the climate of the pandemic has prompted a unique dynamic across college campuses that has changed the way students live and interact with each other. My project offers an experience that cannot be found anywhere else as I knew how important it was to show a raw perspective of what college during the pandemic really is like. The bad times, the good times, and all of the highs and the lows with no filter. By coupling these images with my own anecdotes and memoir-style perspective, I aimed to allow the reader to go through this semester alongside us—to hear my inner thoughts while visually seeing what I was seeing.

I did not have much experience with photo books before beginning this project, but I was always a pro at taking pictures of everything and everyone, so I knew that I would have plenty of photography to work with. In terms of the writing portion, I have always loved writing from the heart. I find that my best work comes when I am writing from my own genuine perspective with myself as the main character. This project allowed me to couple my love for photography and writing in a valuable way—I can’t wait for everyone to experience it!