Senior Portraits: Celebrating the Class of 2020
I don’t recall all of high school, but the highlights I do remember, I think back on with such fondness. I can still feel the anticipation of starting senior year - the excitement of looking at colleges, how old I felt watching Freshman - heading to their classes. I remember daydreaming about walking across the stage at graduation, and then moving away and going to a university.- I still have the photos from the celebrations and parties leading up to graduation with all of my closest friends.
Growing up, I watched the classic movies that depicted a certain impression of what high school should look like. Even if our own high school experiences didn’t follow the fairytales of Hollywood (mine sure didn’t), when the class of 2020 started the year they never expected anything but hormones, broken hearts, and senioritis to get in the way of their plans. It was their turn to lead the school and COVID threw an interesting twist on it all. Their graduation may not have meant walking across the stage alongside their classmates, but it did not lack celebration. Senior year was anything but canceled.
Along with the parades, yard decorations, Zoom parties, and social media tributes, I want to offer a way for seniors to celebrate and document their milestone. Expanding my portrait business to senior portrait sessions gives them a way to honor where they are today and their achievements while giving their future selves something to look back on how far they’ve come from their late teens. Also, who doesn’t want to feel like a super model for an afternoon?
With this idea in mind, I recently photographed three graduates from the class of 2020 - all close friends. After the session was over I asked them about their atypical end of high school experience and how they felt. I was overwhelmed by their confidence during the shoot and then blown away by their mature outlook on the major shift their year took. Even if a small percentage of this rising generation carries these attitudes into their adult lives, I think we’ll be okay. The youth these days gives me such hope for our future. Here are their perspectives:
AVA
“The pandemic hitting when it did really put me into quite the disappointed and anxious state; I was scared that my entire high school experience was cut short that day and I would never get the closure and fun senior semester I felt that my friends and I deserved. Luckily, however, I had my college decision all set back in February, so that was not a major stressor. Yet, going forward with COVID I realized not only would the end of my senior year be drastically different, but I also would not get the typical college Freshman experience everyone else got. Despite the sadness of facing these harsh realities, I know everyone in my position is going through the same thoughts and feelings I am experiencing, which, although sad, is comforting. Additionally, I feel like people are going out of their way to make sure that all graduates feel appreciated and understood, something that is very heartwarming and something special we would not have had under the ‘normal’ circumstances.” - AVA
NADIA
“The pandemic hitting when it did was really unfortunate. As a senior I feel like a lot of things were left undone and unsaid. Second semester of our senior year was supposed to be the best time of our high school careers, but it was all cut short. However, I’ve tried really hard to not see it as a missing chapter but rather one that was written in a weird (very weird) way. I’m now really looking forward for college, whenever that may start. I think our year will have a unique experience and forever be bonded by what we lost.” - NADIA
EMMA
“The pandemic seemed to hit us seniors pretty hard, doing distance learning and not being able to spend time with friends was probably the most difficult thing to do during COVID. Now that I have these images, I believe they mark a time in my life that is complicated yet rewarding because I accomplished graduating high school- just differently than others. It’s certainly a time that no one will ever forget.” - EMMA