Parsons Challenge Image #3

My school is an environment deeply affected by segregation. While some students stray out of their cultural and artistic groups, the biggest social problem at Idyllwild Arts Academy is the fact that film majors hang out with film majors, musicians with musicians, Koreans with Koreans, and so on. Over the past four years I have managed to cultivate friends from different majors, but I have never been close to anyone of a different culture. This year I was randomly assigned to live with Neli Petrova Rashkova, a fourth-year Bulgarian dance major. While Neli and I have attended school together since we were freshman, we had never had more than a five-word conversation until this year. Over the past four months Neli and I have become best friends—we are compatible as roommates, and although we seem to have nothing in common, we have found odd similarities in our pasts and personal interests. I photographed Neli dancing in my dorm’s common room, using a slow shutter speed and placing a black-drop over the window to produce a surreal looking background. The result is an image showing my most unexpected best friend immersed in her art

Done