The University of Michigan has a unique blend of students that love to have fun as well as know how to work and study hard. With this photo essay I wanted to document the people that have shaped my Michigan experience, both friends and classmates. I was able to document a night in my house and subsequent morning. I tried to keep the photos spontaneous, with a few exceptions, to provide a real life feel. The first photograph is of my housemate Tony. I love the chaos going on in his room (note the missing bedsheets) representing the typical college student. He has a care free smile as he, like many of us, has learned to live in a pigsty. The next picture is an action shot of a friendly beer pong game. I tried to get an upward angle to glorify these “athletes”. You can see the intensity and competitiveness that results from such a simple game. The next photo may be my favorite. Another upward angle shot makes the subject look glorified, majestic even. The next photo is a portrait of my housemate Dave. A couple friends were sitting in a circle so I decided to sit in the middle and take pictures of each. This picture perfectly captures Dave’s essence: socks and sandals, scrubby hair, making some type of gesture, probably yelling at somebody. The next photo is another action shot of a drinking game. This time I took a wide angle to capture both teams. Once again I feel like it beautifully represents the student life, using limited resources to have fun with your buddies. The next picture was less spontaneous and more artistic. I saw my friend sitting outside and positioned him in between the bushes to create a cool shot. The following picture is an action shot of an interesting fellow taking a morning run. I decided to include him because he is my kind of person. He is doing his own thing just trying to get from point A to point B as quick as possible. I love spontaneous pictures of real people and this was a perfect one to include. Typical of a Michigan student, I had a group project meeting the morning after a wild night. The following photo documents this meeting as our group takes over an entire classroom. The empty feel of the classroom represents the general sadness of having to do work on a Sunday morning. This emptiness is juxtaposed by the heavy activity in the following picture. Just a few steps outside the empty classroom lies a lobby swarming with students preparing for Finals week. The Business School is really fun to photograph because there is so much going on. The eccentricity of the architecture really goes well with the constant student activity. The final photo is simple yet perfect. After my group meeting I reunited with my buddies to have a very necessary Sunday breakfast at Fleetwood Diner. I felt so happy at that moment that I needed to capture it and take a photo. You can see pure joy in the face of my friend Zimmer (subject on left) and pure disgust on the face of my friend Doug (subject on right) who hates ketchup.
I feel like I accomplished what I wanted which was to document the life of a typical Michigan student. As my student days are coming to an end I have realized that it is the people you meet which makes the college experience. Hopefully this photo essay has offered a glimpse into some of my experience.