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Practice Shots and experimenting the amount of exposure I can get on one negative
Camera: Canon A1 Film
Practice Shots and experimenting the amount of exposure I can get on one negative
Camera: Canon A1 Film
Among the three dozen or more exhibitor tables lining the museum corridors on all three floors was this one for the Grand Rapids Latvian Association. Since the museum's Cultural Heritage festival ran from 10 a.m. to 4 or 5 p.m. closing, some of the tables had rotating representatives to pass the hours talking with visitors. At the moment of this photo it was two women dressed in traditional (pre-1900?) folk dress identified with one or more regions of the Baltic country.
Since the USA is one of the nation-states populated by settlers and former colonists who immigrated from another place, it is not surprising to see festivals, parades, events, performances and other occasions that remember, honor, or celebrate "the home country." Only a few of those taking part may have direct, personal experience of the place being singled out. Instead, most will be USA-born or 2nd, 3rd or later generations. Many of those immigrant descendants will now count multiple ancestry sources, too, not just the particular country or flag associated with today's nation-state. And yet, even if it is just 1/8th (just one of one's great-grandparents) Latvian ancestry, a visitor to this table may want to learn about the group sponsoring the table and their annual activities to socialize with fellow descendants of the Old Country.
For a country of relatively small population (less than 2 million in Latvia, says Wikipedia) and therefore speakers of the language and carriers of its performing and visual arts, religious traditions, and crafts and cuisine, among other things. the chances of rubbing shoulders with a distant relative here at the Grand Rapids Latvian Association are higher than you might suppose. In a big city, there can come some comfort in having a place where you feel kinship or belonging just on the basis of genetic heritage or surname and migration history. That feeling of belonging and having a rightful place has two sides: it is who you are (even if fractionally) as an insider, but simultaneously it is who you are not (different to everyone lacking your DNA credentials).
These anthropological ruminations may bear some truth, but getting to know the two ladies at the Latvian Association table may turn up other dimensions of participating in an ethnic organization in west Michigan. Still another way to put the experience in contrast or showing the contours of relief is to imagine the reverse: what might a USA Association look like in 2025 Riga or another city in modern Latvia. Many other immigrant countries exist, too; maybe there are Latvian Associations in New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, or Argentina, too.
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Practice Shots and experimenting the amount of exposure I can get on one negative
Camera: Canon A1 Film
Non-Japanese stand out in many ways, especially when not of East Asian parentage: language, clothing, voices (loudness, language, contexts and topics for expressing). In the weeks after Covid transmission danger was subsiding and foreign visitors began to increase more and more came in to public view. Some arrive in Japan for several days en route to a final destination elsewhere. Others make Japan their destination and spend a couple of weeks, even a month or two in some cases. Still others come on business and add on personal time as part of the itinerary. Then there are the foreigners who are resident in Japan for work or school or family reasons. Depending on how enculturated into the language and society of Japan, they may stand out less than the others described.
In this photo a family group seems to be waiting a connecting train at a hub city of the Japan Rail network. One day they may tell others of the time they "were in Japan." But this prompts the question, what does it mean to "be in Japan."? On the surface it simply reports one's physical presence on the territory sovereign to Japan. But with regard to one's mind, heart, memories, and worldview, that is a different matter. Just because you are physically in a place does not mean you engage with its ideas, assumptions, highly valued and highly devalued subjects, and so on. In other words, "being" somewhere in body is not the same as being there fully identifying and resonating with the place. One can mostly be a spectator, mostly be a participant, or some combination of participating and observing.
In the case of each person in this family group, it would be interesting to know their sense of attachment (or lack of attachment) they feel to the days they passed in locations around Japan among its people, land, popular culture and headlines.
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People with BPD often go through frequent changes in their appearance hair color, piercings, tattoos, and more.
These changes aren’t impulsive trends or attention-seeking behavior. They’re part of a deeper struggle with identity.
For many, it’s about trying to answer one core question:
“Who am I?”
Understanding this helps replace judgment with empathy and awareness.
#BPD #BorderlinePersonalityDisorder #MentalHealthAwareness #BPDUnderstanding #IdentityStruggles #MentalHealthEducation #Psychology #EmotionalHealth #TraumaAwareness #SelfIdentity #MentalHealthMatters #HealingJourney #EmpathyOverJudgment #TherapyTalk #MindHealth
This is about vanity, the obsession with the 'it' girl and how she wears the crown and how she is meant to be so beautiful. In this photo of me i tried to portray just how beautiful the 'it' girl really is, and to show she's just as good as anyone else, but the crown signifies the battle to be on top. yeah basically...this picture says fuck me i'm hot
i took this picture to use as part of my project at college called elements. this one was representing 'colour'. i altered the saturation slightly on photoshop to bring out the colour more.