Friday was the Adobe creative jam, a tournament of sorts where myself and 13 other LA-based photographers were given a theme at 7 AM to shoot and met at 5 PM to process our work. At 8 PM, we handed in 1 file for judging and came on stage to share our process.
The days leading up the challenge was spent brainstorming, scrawling in notebooks of various sizes, trying my best to prepare for an assignment that would remain a mystery until that day of the shoot. I secured my models and makeup artist in advance and adventured all over LA looking for locations and props, readying myself to rise at 6 AM the day of the shoot completely prepared.
Since I had no idea what the assignment would be, I asked myself "What is important to me right now, what do I want to communicate?" and developed a loose concept based on that, inspired by the political events that have rocked the United States. Before this election, I had never encountered the term "echo chamber" and have been ruminating on what that means.
At 7 AM, the theme "The Other Side" landed in my inbox, and by 9 PM that night, I was on stage sharing these words in front of an audience of creative professionals and judges:
The other side is the unknown, the feared, the misunderstood within ourselves and others. We all live in our own echo chambers, repeating self-inflicted truths to ourselves, cemented so firmly in our minds that we cannot begin to understand the other side.
Learn more about the Adobe Creative Jam here:
https://nvite.com/CreativeJam/laphoto
