"On Longing"
Sentence #1
"The body is the primary mode of perceiving scale." 

I chose this image because I am shorter than most of my friends (and a lot of people), so my perception is different based on my height. Here my friend Clara are at a music festival, which is surrounded by huge fountains and ferris wheels and many large scale objects. Everyone's perception of the world is different.

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Sentence #2
"Capacity of objects to serve as traces of authentic experience."

I took this photo last Valentine's day. I pretty much tried to ignore that it was Valentine's Day all day long, but after my last class, I was given this pink rose on the street by a little girl who said "Happy Valentine's Day!" She made my day, and I kept the rose for a while afterwards. To me, this object represented that love can always be found.

Sentence #3
"The souvenir reduces the public, the monumental, and the three dimensional into the miniature, that which can be enveloped by the body."

This image of the Colosseum, which is definitely a symbol of Rome, is special to me. It was my trip to Italy in the summer of 2011, and I was so excited to see the sights. I bought and still have a tiny souvenir mini Colosseum, and every time I see it, it reminds me of my fun trip. 

Sentence #4

"Nostalgia can not be sustained without loss."

This is a photo of when I performed my senior solo dance in front of my high school. I had not wanted the attention of dancing a senior solo at my last dance recital at Jami Masters Dance Studio, but I worked hard with my favorite ballet teacher to make this dance and she thought it would be good practice for me to perform it at my high school talent show. I was so nervous I wanted to be sick, but I did the dance and it was all a blur afterwards. I had not cared about these moments back then, but now that I am a junior in college and more mature, I realize that I do miss dance and these special moments.

Sentence #5

"To have a souvenir of the exotic is to posses both a specimen and a trophy."

I took this photo in Paris by the Eiffel Tower the same summer of 2011 when my family and I were in Europe. My younger sister and I both still have our little Eiffel Towers in our rooms, and love how cute they are. It is always special to travel, and having these souvenirs reminds us of how lucky we are that we have seen the beautiful city of Paris.

Nursing

“Touch reassures an infant that it’s safe; it seems to give the body a go-ahead to develop normally.  In many experiments conducted all over the country, babies who were held more became more alert and developed better cognitive abilities years later.” This piece represents the powerful touch that an infant experiences when nursing. To me it embodies the reassurance that a baby feels as it is being cared for, not only because the infant is being held closely to his mother’s warm body, but also receiving nourishment, all through touch. It is a beautiful and natural early form of touch.

Girl in the Mirror

“What is a sense of one’s self?  To a large extent, it has to do with touch, with how we feel… Not that our sense of self is necessarily accurate.  Each of us has an exaggerated mental picture of our body… because that is the way their body feels to them.” This sketch represents how one girl sees herself, in her form of reality.  How she feels about herself is a much bigger version than how others see her.  When she touches her hips, she feels a much bigger person than it is in reality, but it is her reality because that is how she feels, both inside and outside of her body.  My younger sister suffers from body image dysmorphia, as well as one of my closest friends.  It is a challenging and emotional process to change the mind of someone who ‘feels’ the way they feel, even if the person understands they are measuring themselves in an excessive manner.