"35mm on 35mm"
For this project, I ventured to the Stanford Theater in Palo Alto, which has been showing movies in 35mm prints since 1925. I’ve been a fan of movies since I saw The Little Mermaid at age 2, and I thought this location would be a great place to revisit multiple times to capture different moments. I also think there is a beautiful, meta aspect to photographing moviegoers seeing a 35mm Black and White monster movie, in 35mm Black and White film! I decided to anchor my project in images that conjure the emotions that go along with seeing a movie in the theater. The regal aspects, the social aspects, the magical aspects, the introspective aspects, and the surreal aspects.
Photographically, I tried to emphasize the dream-like nature of cinema. As one of my favorite directors Damien Chazelle puts it, “cinema & dreams are very much tied at the hip.” To that end, I leaned into the soft images projected onto the screen and incorporated the bokeh produced by the light coming through the entrance. I tried to embrace the flickering and eternal nature of the film projector and how it illuminates the air in front of it.
On a composition level, I wanted to showcase the many different ways we can appreciate movies in a cinema. Sometimes we go alone and appreciate the films individually. In two frames, I showed a man sitting alone with his feet up on the row in front of him. I intend those two images to function as a diptych, as there is a moody and dramatic element when viewed together. I was loosely inspired by the famous movie theater scene in Taxi Driver where Travis Bickle sits alone. Other times, we come to the theater to share an experience with other people, whether they are strangers or friends. To show this type of experience, I framed shots from the upper level to show a whole group of people entranced in the same frame. There is something really special about that collective immersion, and I would hate to leave that out of this photo essay on the power of cinema.
"A Trip To the Stars"
A Trip to the Stars dives deep into the chaotic yet beautiful celestial bodies of our cosmos and takes the viewer on a journey that they will never forget. Through the power of photography, audiences can witness the nuclear fusion of the sun and the dangerous serenity of a solar eclipse – or, more precisely, artistic approximations of said phenomena.
Mirroring the journey by which stargazers tilt up their head to contemplate the night sky, my series of photographs is a linear exploration of the cosmos. Stars emerge, they sparkle for our amusement, and they eventually burn out with fiery passion. When they explode, they release new elements and particles into the vast and empty void that is outer space. A Trip to the Stars captures all of these moments in an abstract manner. I also included some photographs that imply an astronaut-like observer. This figure is a stand-in for the viewer, and allows them to further immerse themselves into the seemingly foreign and otherworldly visuals of the cosmos.
This project was inspired by Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer (2023), both in subject matter and in technique. In the film, macro photography of nuclear reactions and particle interactions help to show the viewer how the protagonist sees the world in a way that no one else can. Similarly, this series gives any viewer the ability to see the world in a way that no human can with the naked eye. On a technical level, this series of photographs also uses a related technique–using practical elements such as glitter to represent minute structures–to transfix the viewer in a subatomic world.
"Perpetual Hedonism"
"Untitled"
"California Dreaming"