Graduation

Hey guys,
As you all know, many schools are coming to an end. My last day was Wednesday, and also the day of my graduation. Here are some pictures of my friends, me, and the ceremony (click on "graduation" when you get there). Also, I would like to share the speech I wrote:

I found myself standing in her ‘shrine’, as I later called it, staring at the photographs, old newspaper clippings and lighting coming from the projector in the ceiling. So this is the real Diane Arbus, I thought to myself. I had just been dragged to the Metropolitan Museum of Art by my parents. They said we were going to see a photography exhibit. We arrived at the big white steps and then proceeded to enter and get our tickets. “So, who is this Diane…whatever?” I asked them. “Diane Arbus. She’s a photographer. She took pictures of all different kinds of people. They each have flaws that she was able to capture in her photographs”, my dad responded.

We entered the gallery. I found myself examining each photograph intently. I was amazed, among many things, at the diversity of them. There were photographs of wealthy families, young boys, poor families, nudist camps, hard laborers, transvestites, dancers, and those who are mentally unstable. While studying these pictures, questions began popping into my head. Who are these people? What are they doing with their lives? Is this how they always act? I walked around the rectangular room and then went into another. This room was darker. Higher on the wall there were more newspaper clippings, photographs, and her ideas. There was a display of her journal, written in illegible cursive. On the wall beside it there was the translation. She had written, “I really believe there are things nobody would see if I didn't photograph them.”

When I think of Bank Street I find I can compare it to the photographer holding the camera, informing the students of the things behind the lenses. Slowly, over the years, Bank Street has given me the camera, allowing me to see the differences in people myself. Bank Street has allowed me to see the things instead of looking at them through another. Diane Arbus was a photographer who took pictures so people would be able to see differences. In the beginning, like those looking at her pictures, I was only open to the things in the still frame. Now I have developed the ability to see and comprehend the unusual and the ability to accept it and recognize that it exists in everyone. Bank Street has helped me become the photographer.

When I walked out of the exhibit, I had this strange sense of completion. I felt as if the exhibit had been an end to something. I also felt a deep sadness. This may have been because Diane Arbus committed suicide later in her life or because the pictures themselves were so deeply emotional. Whatever the reason, today I look back at my visit at the museum and recognize the feelings I am having now with those that I felt then. I stand here before you with terribly mixed emotions. My career here has come to an end. I feel complete, and yet I cannot deny my sadness.

Bank Street has shown me how to ask questions and to see people how they really are. It has taught me to capture things in the world around me and to share my observations with others. While I do not altogether want to move on, a part of me knows I have to. I may be leaving the community, but the skills Bank Street has taught me and the teachers and students there will stay with me forever, like photographs on a wall.
Enjoy,
Love Sophie