Namiko Stevens: A Senior Profile Portrait by Julia White (2011)

Namiko Stevens is misunderstood. She has lived her whole life following the direction and desires of her parents. They have made every decision for her. Her vegetarianism, college choice, and even her career path and have been mapped out without her opinion. Throughout the years, she has just lived in a trance, almost like a puppet. She has had some nice acquaintances, but never a best friend. Now, she is beginning to realize that she lacks an identity. As she has this epiphany, she feels nothing but pure anger and frustration. I decided to use a forced decision, Namiko's vegetarianism, and her suppressed anger as the main components of the photograph. The moment I captured depicts an extreme time where she is at the peak of her anger. She is seen sitting cross-legged with carrots in her hands and one in her mouth. The carrots, while obviously representing her vegetarianism, are actually a greater metaphor for all of the decisions made by her parents, and not her, in her life. She is letting out the anger that she has never noticed before now.