Graduation season is upon us again. Last night I shot my first for the year — Davis — and every ceremony of the past came instantly back: the jittery excitement of the students, the parents dressed to the nines and holding flowers for their senior, the speeches by the class president, the spontaneous cheers from the crowd.
There are a few serious challenges to shooting graduations. The main one is that it’s essentially the same ceremony which is, for us, often in the same venue. Having shot graduations here for several years, it seemed like every time I raised my camera, I only saw pictures I’d taken before: graduates adjusting their hats, parents snapping photos, a stage full of school board members and faculty. My favorite photo from last night is one I saw while Dillion Jaime was singing and the spotlights cast his shadow in sharp contrast on the floor. The lighting and gesture made for a unique moment.
The flip side of this challenge is that I was reminded that I love the mood of graduations. And even if I’ve photographed many graduation moments before, I’m reminded that this is the first and only only high school graduation for these students, a milestone they have been working years for. Their excitement is inspiring and their parents’ pride makes me want to make the absolute best document of this important family event. I have the feeling — the hope — that the day after the ceremony, kids and parents are going to clip the photo or the article for their refrigerator or their scrapbook, that someone might look at these pictures twenty or thirty years from now and remember what that night felt like for them.While I know that much of our work is ephemeral, printed today and in the recycle bin tomorrow, I am reminded at ceremonies like these that sometimes we can create and contribute something that will have a further reach and, in this case, help to celebrate the next generation of our community.
Picture This | seattletimes.com blog
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