Both photos were taken more than a century apart, but this experience personally taught me how photography can preserve meaningful moments, connections, and community. My group took this photo on the same lawn where Alice Austen photographed four other people expressing closeness and connection. We tried to capture a similar scene, but ended up doing something slightly different. Same location, but instead of four people in the original Alice Austen’s photograph, we were only three. Some of our group members claimed the pose was too intimate. In our picture, we are smiling and trying to make a heart shape together, capturing a moment of connection and shared experience. However, our middleman, Tucker messed it up. hehehe!
To me, both photos reflect community. Alice’s image represents people who were probably part of her everyday life and home, while ours represents the connection and community we are building as Fridman scholars.
