As mentioned in my goals, I wanted to document events and moments of my life during COVID 19. It has definitely been an interesting couple of months, especially with online school during our final year, which I would’ve never imagined growing up. After the second lockdown ended, I decided that I needed to get out of the house and find new hobbies, I started to think of ways that I would not be breaking social distancing rules, nor staying in public places for too long. It occurred to me that the only places I would go was to a friends house, or walking around a friends house with them, I found myself taking pictures of the places I would go, the things I would see and the people I would be with.
The idea of creating a scrapbook still interested me a lot, however was hard to create as a lot of work had started to pile on, and I felt as if it would be more interesting to compile different pictures of events throughout the year, and put it altogether during December break as a way to keep up with creativity amongst all the mock exam stress.
My friends helped along the way, as they would remind me to take pictures, or document an event that was sentimental to me or that I felt was a beautiful image to capture. I was able to take pictures of Colombo at night, in the early morning, for sunrise or for sunset, which for me was an amazing experience. Pictures do tell a thousand words, and this has helped me immensely in widening my perspective of creativity. I used to think creativity in CAS meant doing Voice, a structured time to be “creative”, or doing COMUN which was also an activity I participated in. However, not attending school has personally made me more creative than ever, as I haven’t been restricted to a certain activity, and was able to decide something that I would be passionate about. Photography has always been a medium that has interested me even in HL art, however I felt like I never had the time to go to places and take cool pictures; the last few months have been the perfect time for me to do so.
I have learnt about lighting, angles and colors through these simple photos I’ve been taking with my phone, and just that has inspired me to do much more with these photos and how in a few years, it would bring back memories I may have forgotten by then. This form of art is used by everyone, but it is the creative aspect of the object chosen, the angles and the lighting that add so much more to a photo; and I am grateful to have been able to learn that over the last few months.
The first photo was taken in the early morning, as I had walked by the Independence and found it beautifully lit, where there was a religious ritual happening. It was an amazing moment that I wanted to capture. I attempted to create an image where the darkness would contrast with the bright lights inside the monument, which I was able to do. Due to the picture being taken with a phone, the quality is not great, however the lighting was beautifully captured.
The second picture was taken along with a friend, who had a profound interest in staircases that were mysterious or weirdly shaped. It was at night time, near Majestic City, that we found an interesting staircase that was brightly lit in the midst of a dark and old building. It was interesting to come up with different ideas of why the creator would make up such an interesting concept of a dark building with a bright, white lit staircase in the middle.
The last picture was also taken with the same idea and concept of staircases. This one was found in a rather rural area in Battaramulla, where no one was seen. It was an open-air staircase which I found interesting and it looked as if the place was still in construction, but hadn’t been worked on in years. The dark shadows along with the bright area at the bottom also create a contrast between day and night.
These are just a few of the many pictures I took of places I found interesting, but I of course have more images of friends and family that I would add to my scrapbook in the future.