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London Photo Journal Project Part I

About a week before I left to study abroad in London, I came across a book in my local bookstore that caught my attention: Wildflowers in Britain by Geoffrey Grigson. I impulse bought it with the idea that I'd go hunting for the flowers and photograph them with their respective pages in the book. This project attracted the attention of various people along the way. First, an elderly man in the airport saw me reading the book before my flight. He told me he remembered when it had come out (it was published in the 1940's), that it was a very important book, and that he was glad to see it again. I didn't think much of this at the time, but later (via Tumblr of all places) I learned that that book is part of a series of short books on things unique to Britain. They were published during World War II and made to be easily hidden (they were all thin and small - I kept mine in my daily-use hand bag) because they were meant to preserve British cultural heritage in the case that the Nazis succeeded. I did not find this out until more than a year after the study abroad trip. During the trip, the book project attracted several more people's attention. My roommate helped me track down the plants and marveled at my ability to remember what each of the flowers looked like well enough to recognize them in the wild and stop to get the book out. She also got to witness me jump out of bed and run around the side of the university with my phone camera because I realized a "weed" we had been passing on the sidewalk for weeks was actually common mallow, and I hadn't recognized it because the flowers in the book weren't in color. One day I stopped along a fence line on the way towards Camden from Regent's Park to photograph a plant growing at the edge. A man walking on the sidewalk stopped to ask me what I was doing, so I explained the book project to him, and he spent a bit looking at the book with me. He thanked me for sharing it, said he was happy he happened upon me that day, and that he would pay more attention to wildflowers from now on. My professor (who lives part time in London) was also incredibly enthusiastic about the project and the second part of it (further below) where I compared local flowers to architectural features. His class actually had a photo journal as an assignment, and what you see below is what I submitted for mine. He kept my project and showed it to his wife, who saw me in his office the next semester and excitedly said, "Oh is this the flower girl?"

London Photo Journal Project Part II

The second part of the project evolved later partially in response to the photo journal minimum of 20 photos. I decided to compare local flowers to local architectural features, and my professor encouraged the pursuit by waiting up for me when we were out on field trips, and I needed to run across the street for a minute to photograph a medallion, or a cornice, or a frieze. The results of that part of the project are below with my favorite comparison being the first shown: the exact match of a rose in Regent's Park with a rose carved on the public exit to St. Paul's Cathedral.

Pandemic Photography

I encountered unavoidable travel at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. due to the death of my grandmother. Since there wasn't much else I could do about the what was happening, I started documenting it - all the signs and adaptations that the world created to keep moving despite the virus. I have over 800 pandemic photos now, which are already compiled in two albums on Behance. They are better viewed there from a chronological standpoint (there is a tab for them under "WORK," but they did not upload in order), so here are the links to both projects:

Pandemic Photography Part I: https://www.behance.net/gallery/94442295/Documenting-the-COVID-19-Pandemic

Pandemic Photography Part II: https://www.behance.net/gallery/102357609/Documenting-the-COVID-19-Pandemic-Part-II

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