SUMMER INTENSIVE 2011

Unfortunately I got really sick during the summer intensive so I was not able to take many pictures :(

Street Photography with Adam

This is probably one of my favorite pictures from that day. I acheived this shot by putting my camera on Adam's dashboard while he was driving and put it on a really slow shutter speed. One of my favorite things about this picture is that you can still see the buildings and they look so far away.

Thanks again Adam! :D

Final

I took the above photo on May 21, 2011. At first glance this pretty little girl seems completely normal besides the fact that she's in a wheel chair. But infact this little girl is sick. She has cancer. I was at the Celebration of Champions when I took this. The Celebration of Champions have been going on for 16 years. It celebrates all the children who are going through cancer, beat cancer, or sadly lost the battle to cancer.

My family goes every year since my brother had cancer. We've been going at least 5 years (I think). The reason why I decided to use this picture for one of my final photos because it is a picture I felt that actually had meaning. When you think of cancer you don't really think of a child who looks this happy or well. I really like this picture because of that fact. Even though she's sick she's still smiling and happy and I think that's what I like most.

This is my second picture for my final. There really isn't a deep meaning to this one. I took this one on May 30, 2011. I was kind of freaking out because I didn't know what to do for my final so I called up my friend Adam Ghahate, who is a photo stutdent in college, and he took me to Down Town and Seaport Village. The kind of photography Adam does is street photography, which I had never done. It  is incredibly fun. I was having a blast running around everywhere and taking pictures.

The reason why I decide to use the photo above for my final is because I don't really take pictures of the ocean or buildings. I felt that for my first time this picture is really good. I will also be posting other pictures I took on our adventure.

I hope you enjoyed them :)

Bye :3

Rough Draft of Prop H8 Brochure

Below is the rough draft of my "Prop H8" brochure. Keep in mind that it is divided into 6 panels, 3 on top and 3 on bottom. This took quite awhile to do and it's not that great. It is pretty simple and I still need to add my business card (as soon as I finish it). Designing is just not my niche...

5 Photo Series

Probably for the rest of the year I'm going to be doing photo series of fives. I finally thought of a good idea that I actually care about, childhood cancer. When my brother was twelve years old he was diagnosed with two brain tumors, which we later found out were cancerous. My brother was in the hospital for months, although it felt like a year. I remember that he looked the same before and immediately after his surgery but a few weeks later when my mom took me to visit him I thought we went into the wrong room. How could the puffed up boy on steroids be my skin and bones brother? I was about to ask my mom "Where's Miguel? Are you sure we have the right room?" when he had greeted me by shouting "Hey Tina!" I never knew someone could physically change so fast, it amazed me.

Every month me and my brother go to a cancer support group meeting for teens with cancer and their siblings. I have friends who have cancer and friends who's brother or sister has cancer. I've suffered losing quite a few of them to this horrible illness. Everyday I'm thankful that my brother has survived and has been cancer free for almost 7 years.

My idea is to obtain a picture of a cancer patient before they were diagnosed with cancer and capture a photo of when they are fighting the cancer.

The images below of my brother helped inspire this idea

Miguel at age 12

Miguel and my dad at Celebration of Champions

Miguel was going through cancer treatment (if you look closely you can see that he was bald)

Me and Miguel years later at Celebration of Champions

By this point Miguel had beaten his cancer

My brother, Miguel, age 18

Glowing Lights

I took the following photos at my friend Cindy's house when I spent the night. They were created by taking glow sticks and doing various things with them while shooting at a very low shutter speed. I then went into to photoshop, copied the color, and pasted it to a black background. I also changed the brightness and contrast. I hope you enjoy them :)

Rough Draft of Artist Statement

*The following has been edited to protect myself from creepers

Christina Cervantes

b. 1995

"Some City", "Some State"

Biography

Christina Cervantes found her true passion at the age of 14 when she attended a summer intensive for photography in the summer of 2009. Since then she has studied photography at "Name Of My School" for 2 years. Her work has been featured in the Summer Intensive Show (2010), the "AOMS" (abbreviation of my school) brochure (2010), and in the Grand Theater multiple years. She has only done one solo exhibition titled "Prop H8". She hopes to be a professional photographer when she grows up.

Artist's Statement

My exhibition "Prop H8" deals with the stress and emotional distress of being part of the LGBT community. It is an attempt at opening people's eyes and minds. Most of my work takes the still young faces and bodies of teenagers, who are not straight, and puts them in edgy, shocking, and emotionally painful scenes, settings, and scenarios. Occasionally my work will feature adults, young children, straight people, and cheerful scenes.

My personal objective is to not sugar coat what's going on but instead expose some of the suffering and thoughts of the gay community. I have no interest in creating "pretty pictures". My photos show the pain of hiding who you are, hiding your love, bullying, and suicide. I show victims of hate and prejudice hoping that my viewers will understand my message.

My work is influenced by the gay community, the news, and my friends. When I hear or see an issue that pertains to being gay it inspires me and it makes me wish I was invisible so I could take a picture and it'd be raw. I like to try to make the viewer feel like they're right there in that scene.

Most of my work is in color. The purpose of that is so it will be easier for the viewer to put themselves in that scene. Something I like to do with my photos is bring you close up to what's happening or stand at a distance that someone might stand at. By doing this you focus on the subject. I want the viewer to be right there. I want them to be stuck in that specific moment in time.