Willy Harrison: Pilgrimage Reflection

My personal pilgrimage was centered around the power of photography. I primarily focused my efforts into taking a different photograph everyday. This has shown me how my emotions correlate with the different photographs I was taking. My photos of the beach were all taken in Newport Beach. I recall that when I took these photos I was in a much happier mood and I was taking photos of things with greater amounts of sunlight and more overall color. I also came to the realization how much I love Newport Beach, so I discovered the connection of how I find myself to be a happier person in Newport. The photos where it was dark, especially the ones of cars brake lights in traffic, I was in a much grumpier mood. This for sure correlated with my current situation of being stuck in traffic. The connection occurred to me because these photos contained two colors that are generally associated with negativity. The glow from the brake lights contrasted with the dark night sky in order to completely magnify the cloud of negativity. These two examples are some of many where I was able to correlate what my mood was at certain times, how it is affected by surroundings, and how important my geographical location is to my happiness.

As another part of my Pilgrimage Project I read, “National Geographic, Through the Lens.” This book is a compilation of some of the greatest photographs National Geographic has taken for their magazine. Not only has it shown me some of the most expert, influential, and beautiful photographs ever taken, it has given me some more key insights into photography. The photo of the Afghan refugee was the cover of National Geographic in 1982. This photo immediately went global and was the sensation of world attention. Due to this one photograph much more attention was being given towards the crisis in Afghanistan.

Since the moment of its conception photography has been used to spread news throughout the world. Whether it is pictures of Kim Kardashian’s latest dress or of the civil war in Syria, news is being spread through photography. Photography is one of the most widely used artforms and it has taken off exponentially in recent years due to social media websites such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat.