Independence

I took this picture in Central Park, New York. It was a cold winter. Only a few people in the park. When I was walking around with my friends, there were a father and his little son playing in the field. Then, I found out that the father never got close to his son. He was just walking behind and sometimes leaded the way for him. The little guy fell down several times, but his father never jumped out to help him. Instead, he just squatted there and encouraged him to get up. I was really interested about these two lovely guys and took the picture above to record that moment.

I could understand the purpose of why could the father be so cruel with his son. He wanted his son to be independent. That is quite different from the parents in China. Take my parent as an example. When I was young, my parent never left me alone. They hold me in their arms while walking in the street. When I fell down, they always rushed on me and checked whether I was injured. I also had a baby-sitter when they were busy. Besides, my baby-sitter lived with us all the time expected holidays. This well-cared situation was mostly like some other parents at that time. Therefore, most children in China I think are less independent than the children in the US because our parents rarely give their children the opportunity to practice independence, which leads to that many of them hardly adapted to the new environment and sometimes narrow-minded. Compared to the children in the US, they tend to be more independent as a result of the different education received from the parents. On the whole, I strongly support the way what the father in the picture did to his son. Also, I believe the earlier the children become independent; the higher goal in their life will be achieved. This is the idea that I want to represent through this picture.

The City

The city where I once lived is called Jinan in China, and it is the capital of Shandong province. In 2008, the population of the city reached approximately 5.5 million. It is not only a huge number on a statistical table, but also some actual feelings that permeate our daily life such as the crowded street, traffic jam, dirty air and so on.

The picture above was taken in my apartment when I was living in Jinan. At that day, it was a quite fine day and we hadn’t seen such a good weather for a very long time. Then, I thought about it. Why does city make us so hard to see a good weather in our daily life? Can it be changed? Therefore, I transferred this picture into my computer and edited it by Photo Shop. It should be a very nice picture, but I adjusted the contrast and added some filters in order to make this picture more sharp and dirty. In my point of view, a city should be squalid and cowered. People living in the city would feel depressive and anxious, so that I made this picture like contractible eyeshot. When people see this picture, they will feel hopeless and worry about the situation about our environment, which is the purpose of making this picture.

Sometimes, I wondered about why so many people from the countryside wanted to get involved into a life like this. Is this because here we can get more opportunities for jobs or just want to change our living conditions? Then I doubted who should be responsible for our environment, and how can we prevent this from happening instead of dealing with the aftereffects of damaging the environment. While I think those questions should be answered by our government and the whole society, and the solution will be much more complicated than we think.

Scenery with Wind

I took this picture in my bedroom when I was in high school in China. This is one of my photographic works won the third prize in the “I Love My Family” national digital photography competition. At that time, I was also preparing for the Chinese university entrance examination which might be the biggest challenge for every student in China. When I felt tired of my study, the only thing could set me free is photography. I’d love to use my digital camera as my third eye to see the world in a different position. I could always understand or interpret something while I was seeing the picture I just made, even if I didn’t mean to represent any specific ideas before I was actually taking the picture.

I shot this picture in a completely dark room. The light coming from the right corner is actually set by a flashlight. I used very slow shutter speed in order to make the objects clearly in the dark environment. Then the light records the movement of the fan and also makes the painting on the wall more concrete. A comparison between the moving fan and the quiet painting turns out to be the theme of the picture. When I saw the picture in the display screen of my camera, a strange feeling suddenly came through my mind. At that moment, I quickly decided to name it as “Scenery with Wind” because I believed this picture had reflected my life during that time. As I was thinking, every teenager at that age should be care-free, just like the moving fan in its free space and the wild wind which could blow to anywhere. However, the fact told us that we had to bear the heavy load of study and also the pressure from our families. This tough situation forced us to become the concrete painting on the wall. We couldn’t move; we couldn’t focus on other things beside study; we even couldn’t do what we like. We were just a painting waiting for being sold. I hope this situation will be improved in the future, so that teenagers in our country will live a happy life.

My Picture of Literacy

As you can see the picture I made during the class. It explains my own thought of literacy. There are five elements on this picture and each of them represents different points. The image of three kids on the bottom shows the importance of being able to read, and the two arrows of different colors point out two opposite consequences which are failure and success in people’s life. Also, the earth in the background represents that literacy gives people a complete world, and also the world connects each person’s literacy.

In my point of view, literacy is far more important than anything else since we were born. People don’t have to know how to drive, play a song or fix a computer, but they should have the ability to learn them. Therefore, literacy plays a really important role in leading people to interpret, understand, and create things related to their life. It’s more than just being able to read and write. It’s about using the ability to live a better life, which I think it’s the purpose of people’s life and the reason why we came to this world.

Take younger children as an example, the children who have trouble reading or writing often see themselves as inferiority. People always tell them they are stupid, and they are more likely to misbehave in school. As a consequence, they are willing to take more risks with drugs, alcohol, or crime. As a consequence, some of them are dead before they have reached their goals in life or finally lose their track and head for bad ending. On the contrary, the children who have the ability to read can easily distinguish virtue and vice. They know the world’s principle, and they may use that to obtain their benefits in appropriate ways.

Now, my picture seems to be easy to read. The importance of literacy is obvious. If I don't have literacy, it’s hard to imagine where my life will take me. I wouldn’t write those words above, or even understood the requirement of this assignment without literacy. Sometimes, I think my whole life is literacy and so are others. Therefore, the world is actually a connection of billions of literacy. We share our ideas, look for other’s opinions and make new stories based on what we know. They are all about literacy and keep the world running all the time. I think this is the main idea of my picture and my thought of literacy.

What is literacy?

In my point of view, literacy is more than just being able to read and write. It’s more about using the ability to live a better life. Take younger children as an example, the children who have trouble reading or writing often see themselves as inferiority. People always tell them they are stupid, and they are more likely to misbehave in school. As a consequence, they are willing to take more risks with drugs, alcohol, or crime. On the contrary, the children who have the ability to read can easily distinguish virtue and vice. They know the world’s principle, then they may use that to obtain their benefits in appropriate ways. Therefore, the literacy I think might be a tool for us to live a better life.