Clock Tower & Other Photos
A non-AI generated photo series by Kelsey Erica Tran
All photos are original works by Kelsey Erica Tran. An interview with the photographer is below.
We invite you to use any of these photos as a creative prompt for your writing. Please let us know if you do in the comments. Also, a talented writer, a bio about Kelsey is below.
Interview with the photographer by Jen Knox:
JK: Please tell us about what draws you to photography and when you began to take it seriously.
KT: What I love about photography is the realness of a standstill image. Everything is raw and unfiltered. I began to take photography seriously freshman year of high school. That was about five years ago, but it was when my high school photography teacher said to me, “You have an eye for photography,” that I felt this could be my calling.
JK: How do you know you have a good shot?
KT: I know when I have a good shot when I wouldn’t change a thing about it. I am a perfectionist, and it can take me up to an hour to get the perfect angle with the lights and the props. There’s just a feeling I get when I snap the perfect picture and I know that it’s perfect.
JK: What is your favorite subject to photograph?
KT: My favorite subject to photograph is something that has symbolism to it. A close second would be raw images of people in their normal daily lives. I like something that people can relate to. Sometimes this means symbolism, and sometimes this means the wrong aspects of human life.
JK: If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go, and what would you most like to photograph?
KT: If I could go anywhere in the world, I would go to Vietnam. My parents were born in Vietnam, and I speak the language and have been around the culture, my whole life. In my mind, Vietnam is my roots, and I would love to go back to see where my parents lived in their childhood. I would love to photograph the real life of Vietnamese people. Not the tourists, not the fancy beaches and hotels you see online. It would be the families trying to keep food on their plates by selling banh mi on the Saigon streets.
From the artist:
As an aspiring young author, I use personal experiences about being the daughter of Chinese/Vietnamese immigrants, a woman of color, and a disabled teenager to write pieces of literature. Though I am still young, I have performed one of my many poetry pieces on stage at The Music Center at Strathmore after winning a Youth M.L.K Tribute Poetry Contest. One of my works, “Picture Imperfect” has been published by Poetry Nation as well as being a semifinalist in their National Amateur Poetry Competition. I wrapped up my senior year being Speaker Of The Class Of 2022 at my high school, the Montgomery Virtual Academy.