About the artist
Wing is a New York based photographer who was born in Hong Kong and moved to New York City when she was ten. She’s currently a junior at Queens High School for the Sciences at York College. Wing is interested in exploring different media and styles of photography. All of her photography projects are personal to her life and personal interests.
spring
As the development of technology transforms today’s world, New York City teenagers often forget the importance of agriculture and how it contributes to our society. I am a volunteer in two community gardens in Queens. Despite being beside a playground, I barely notice any teens walk into the garden. In contrast, the elderly people are very interested in gardening and spend more time in the community gardens. Sometimes I blame the fence, which separates the playground and the garden, the younger and the older. But why do teenagers and the elderly have such different interests? Why don't younger people take an extra step to cross the fence and take a look? Why is gardening classified as an “old people only” activity? From digital devices like smartphones to home appliances like refrigerators, most teenagers now can easily get access to food as well as various forms of entertainment such as games and social media. This results in the disappearance of the knowledge of the origin of our food in young people. For this project, I use imagery as a form of technology to make agricultural life more attractive to younger generations who live in cities like me. My goal with this project is to prove that gardening is not for “old people only,” each one of us is responsible for taking care of our environment. I hope to capture seasonal transformation and illustrate the entertainment value associated with participating in Gardening.
I started with asking myself, “How can I make gardening accessible to younger generations?” When I asked my peers their thoughts on the topic, the words “interesting”, “cool”, “colorful”, “rare” , and “entertaining” are words that came up. Guided by these words, I composed a series of images utilizing angles, framing and color in the hope of capturing the transformation that occurs within nature during the spring months. Spanning over the course of 2 months, these images aim to capture the beauty of gardening and more successfully communicate that beauty to younger generations.