Photography and Text by Eileen Ko, Copyright 2018
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COMPANIONS
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Happiness, sadness, love, and despair. When I was first assigned with this project, my main concern was deciding who I should ask to express these four human emotions in a way that is natural and familiar to me. As I was wondering, a rather obvious thought popped up in my head: my close friends and significant other that have been with me throughout my college journey and know me best- my companions. Companions whom I experienced all four emotions with- happy moments, sad moments, loving moments, and desperate moments. In the process of trying to figure out how I should compose the photos and what I should have the subjects do in front of the camera, I came to the conclusion that my dorm room, specifically the living room, is where the most memorable and intimate memories are formed and shared. I had my models sit down and I would tell them what emotions and expressions I wanted from them. Overall, the most difficult aspect of the photoshoot was capturing the four real authentic emotions in the subjects. After I sat the subjects down, I told them what I was looking for. It was relatively easy to capture happiness and sadness. However, it was challenging to bring about and capture emotions of love and despair. After a while of test shots, I began to realize that emotions can also be expressed by other parts of the body, not just by the face. With this in mind, I decided to incorporate the use of hands to convey the emotions in a more expressive, familiar way.
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About The Author: Eileen Ko is a Nursing student in her junior year at the University of Pennsylvania, Class of 2019.