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Flavors of Summer

Summer of Something Special Vol. IV features 12 photographers, including Annie Powers, Cameron Reed, Thalía Gochez, Mark Custer, Meiting Song, Jheyda McGarrell, Frankie Carino, Sirui Ma, Yashaddai Owens, Danaya Wattanapan, Clara Balzary, and Yasmin Yassin. All proceeds from the project will be donated to Ghetto Film School.

 

office spoke with a few of the creatives below, witnessing summer in their shoes.

 

Thalía Gochez

 

Gochez’s photos consistently capture the effervescence of her subjects, often entering their personal spaces and letting their individual flair take center stage. Her work creates an oasis for womxn, especially Latinx womxn, to revel in their true beauty and express their heritage freely. Her work in SoSS is no different. Capturing this sense of freedom, Gochez captures confident subjects bathed in the Los Angeles sun. “My favorite summer memories are from my childhood trips to Mexico. I pull so much inspiration from those memorable experiences in my creative work,” Gochez continues, “I’m super inspired by vibrant colors and blue skies which I feel always tends to evoke the sense of summer in California.”

 

Cameron Reed

 

For Reed, summer means freedom as well — as he expresses, “People tend to let go, and appreciate life a little bit more.” But it is also black joy, a time to usher in bolder fashion statements, and quality time with loved ones. This warmth and unbridled expression are what Reed wanted to conjure with his summer snapshots. “I would call it a depiction of southern summer, through the eyes of a young black vanguard,” he reflects.

 

Sirui Ma

 

Ma’s work is poetic in its form, displaying the nuances of everyday life — the minute details that we may not stop and revel in during the daily rush. Her SoSS inclusions are tender, gentle, and alluring. “Feeling the remnants of the sun's heat on my skin at the end of a summer's day is one of the best things in the world,” she says, “I evoked that feeling in my photos from the light. The summer sun makes everything more beautiful.”

 

Danaya Wattanapan

 

Wattanapan had dreams of becoming a photographer ever since she was a young girl because what better way to tell a story than to capture it forever, for others to hold in their hands and pass along to the next generation? She aims to immortalize certain moments, intimate human experiences, and social phenomena through her profound work. When asked about her summer, Wattanapan shared, “This year my family and I were able to travel back to my home country of Thailand for the first time in 22 years. We’d never taken a trip like this together before so it was really special. I was able to meet most of my aunts and uncles and cousins for the first time as an adult, re-immersing myself into my culture in the process.” On her photos, she says, “Since it was my first time meeting my family as an adult, my aim was to capture the connection I was experiencing and building with them.”

 

Check out some photos from the book below, shared exclusively with office.

Photo by Cameron Reed
Photo by Cameron Reed

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