Changing daily reality and forcing us to rethink our future, the pandemic has been challenging for everyone in different ways. For college students, any chance of an authentic on-campus experience was eradicated; at USC, health protocols such as Trojan Check have disincentivized the student body from connecting with the main campus these past two semesters. Aside from those who still live at the USC Village and the few that have on-campus housing, most students have carried on with their lives in off-campus apartments or in homes around the world. Staying indoors and spending long hours studying in front of a computer screen have decreased many students’ morale and led some to feel fatigued and even discontent with their educational experience.
However, while many hours are taken up by Zoom classes and meetings, some students have enjoyed increased free time to pursue extracurriculars. For some, creativity has flourished and hobbies once set aside or neglected have been honed into profitable businesses or passion projects; whether it be painting, photography or even starting a tennis business, students have taken strides into new pathways and opportunities. Others have used their time in a different way, developing better mental health habits through exercise and nature or discovering how the pandemic has impacted their identities.
In some ways the global pandemic has been a blessing in disguise for students, allowing them to pull creativity and inspiration out of a dark hole of depression. Nine to five work hours of monotony and boredom and demanding class schedules have been replaced with a colorful variety of possibilities. Here’s a look at what Daily Trojan photographers have used their time to pursue.
Amanda Chou
Sophomore
Being trapped in lockdown during a global pandemic has made me feel like a bird in a cage: desperate to be released but never knowing when, if ever, I can be free again. However, quarantine has come with its benefits. It has left me with plenty of inspirational emotions that I work to express through art.
For instance, I recently shot a photoshoot around the idea of a bird trapped in a cage, modelled by my friend Sami Brielle, a TikTok influencer. She stood masked against a backdrop of peacock feathers, arms intertwined to express her inability to escape her complex predicament.
Through my photographs, I hope to create an aesthetic response to sensation and emotion. My favorite subjects to photograph are athletes, especially gymnasts. I have always been captivated by the skills of my friend Lauren Navarro, a gymnast at Stanford; as she flipped gracefully through the air, the tips of her hair would gently brush the ground. I worried that gravity would pull her down, swift and hard, but her momentum always swung her around and landed her lightly on her toes.
Meanwhile, I worked on another photoshoot centered around the idea of perseverance, bending but not breaking, modelled by my friend Anne Arellano, a cirque performer. As waves crashed in the background, she balanced on canes buried in the sand and performed a contortion handstand. It’s insane how she did the impossible, bending more than anyone could ever imagine, and even more insane that that’s exactly what this pandemic has taught us to do. Despite the pressure weighing down on us, we have not broken, only bent. We’ve learned to endure and make something beautiful out of our suffering.
Being able to collaborate with other people creatively during the pandemic has been challenging. However, since I moved home last spring after classes transitioned online, I have been able to find ways to connect with local musicians from St. Petersburg, Fla. I have been able to utilize outdoor spaces to continue producing music videos as well as portrait photography that allows musicians to continue promoting their music. Aleigha Everitt and Arin Muchitello comprise the duo “After Summer.” They were used to regularly writing and rehearsing in indoor spaces but they have been able to adapt to continue writing songs, rehearsing their music and creating promotional content in outdoor spaces across various parks and beaches in Florida. These spaces not only serve as beautiful backdrops but socially distanced spaces for them to continue creating.
Amaya Cranston
Sophomore
Andrew Kerner
Sophomore
Some of my fondest childhood memories have been cooking with my grandmother. The practice of making meals has always meant more to me than just cooking and eating on a daily basis. The kitchen, in a way, feels like a spiritual place, a chance for me to bond with my grandmother through the creation of food as we laugh, cry and talk about our day. The ritual of cooking gives me an opportunity to decompress, relax and become more present in the moment.
Attending college in person took this experience away. During the pandemic, with everyone being stuck at home, it's been fun to cook together again. I have a regained appreciation for food in general, and especially the food I am able to cook at home with loved ones. Eating out or picking up food is so easy, but committing to the process of making food from scratch — a process which includes shopping, cooking, eating and cleaning — is really time-consuming, but also really nourishing in more ways than one.
Life during the pandemic is a weird bridge between high school and college for me. Before school started last fall, I spent a lot of my free time painting Bob Ross landscapes and recreating Pinterest artwork to keep myself busy and my creative flow going. However, I tended to abandon a lot of the projects I started. As my stack of unfinished works continues to grow even now, it is starting to resemble my relationship with college.
I had intended for my Fight On! painting to be the first piece of my dorm decor. While it now sits incomplete in the corner of my childhood bedroom, my college experience too has been put on pause. I was excited when I first started the painting, but as time dragged on and the day I would finally see campus kept being pushed back, I felt like I was still in high school and having an extended case of senioritis.
Gina Nguyen
Freshman
Laurence Tarquinio
Freshman
Tennis has been a crucial part of my life since I was eight years old. I played varsity tennis for my high school since my freshman year and I was feeling great about the spring tennis season of my senior year. It would be my last season and I was playing the best tennis of my life. As the district tournament came closer things started to close because of the coronavirus pandemic. I never got a chance to finish my spring semester, and I did not play any tennis for a couple of months after graduation.
During the summer, me and my old doubles partner from high school came up with the idea of starting a tennis academy. In high school, we would travel 30 minutes away to the closest tennis academy because there were no coaches in our area. We decided that we had the experience, and the knowledge required to be great coaches. School was going to be online in the fall so we put all of our effort into starting up the tennis academy. After printing flyers and posting them around every tennis court, neighborhood mailbox, small business and library we got four kids to come out and be our first students.
Word spread that there were two college kids teaching tennis to kids in the area and new students started coming every single day. We outgrew our original tennis courts and moved to the high school courts where me and my friend used to play matches every week. Instead of playing opponents on the courts, we were teaching students. I love seeing all of my students improve every week. Kids from four to 16 have come out and developed a true passion for tennis while getting immensely better at the sport. The best part about the tennis academy to me is the community that has been built through the academy. All of the kids know each other, and parents love to come and bring food to share every weekend. As the students compete and get better together, they learn lessons about determination, confidence, teamwork and preparation that can be used on and off the court.
After losing my job because of the pandemic, I began searching for new ways to make money from the comfort of my home. After hearing about Depop –– a platform for selling old clothes –– I began scouring my closet and listing whatever I could find. While I sold several items, it did not pull in as much money as I had hoped and was rather boring. So I switched gears and incorporated my favorite hobby into my new side hustle: crochet.
TikTok and Pinterest became sources of inspiration for me as I searched for a theme I wanted for my shop. After settling on having a cottage core vibe, I began sketching out a few designs –– like strawberry hats, kerchiefs, bee earrings and other accessories –– which became huge hits. While watching class lectures, I would simultaneously be preparing orders to be shipped the next day. Eventually, my items got featured on Depop’s explore page, bringing in over 600 followers and inspiring me to expand my business to Etsy. After doing so, I received orders outside of the United States, from places such as Germany and Denmark, which was somewhat comforting. Even though I’m unable to leave my house because of the pandemic, my little shipments can go to countries on the other side of the world.
Melody McBride
Freshman
Nayeon Ryu
Freshman
I've always been someone who needs to be on the go, so it was no surprise that my first couple of weeks in lockdown were absolutely miserable. The minutes moved slower than me running the mile; things I used to love doing became a bore. But with new cats, plants and ways of safely meeting with friends, I slowly started getting used to the rhythm of this new life. I wanted to recreate that same progression in my photos. Just like my lockdown started, my photos start off dull with minimal colors, but that changes by the end. None of the photos are interesting –– that's because my life hasn't been –– but those I once would have considered to be blue and gray are now what I view as colorful. What I once despised about the stillness of life, I'm learning to appreciate, one year later.
During quarantine, I have had a lot of time to explore beautiful, natural areas near me. My photo essay follows the journey of a man amongst nature and symbolically represents how getting in touch with nature during quarantine has impacted me and my perspective on life.
To begin with, my first photo shows a man beginning to explore the natural world. The first two images show the man meditating in nature and reflecting upon his existence amongst a vast world. Rather than continuing to look at the big picture as in the fourth image, the man begins to look closer at all the life surrounding him, and he appreciates the beautiful color and detail of a turtle. He then begins to realize that not only is the world large, but there are small worlds that hide outside of our own limited perception of the world. In the last image, the yellow balls on the branch of the tree are their own little planets. Through exploring the beauty of small nature, the man realizes that it is easy to get caught up in the abstract and find it hard to have meaning in such a large world. Instead of worrying about the vastness of the world, it is sometimes nice to stop and appreciate the beauty and complexity of the small worlds around you.
Polina Past
Sophomore
Rohan Palla
Junior
As a film major during quarantine, I've had to think of new ways to get captivating shots. This has made me look at daily household items with a new perspective. One of my shots involves placing an iPhone in the fridge against a loaf of bread. With the front camera facing the actor, you are able to get a really unique perspective of someone picking food from the fridge through the fridge itself.
Another project that included a homemade perspective was my film "Brewtiful Day." For this film, I wanted to be in the perspective of a cup of coffee. So one of the shots was pouring coffee on top of the phone camera to establish perspective of coffee pouring into a cup. I achieved this by simply placing my iPhone inside a Ziploc and slowly pouring coffee on top of the camera area. Furthermore, I placed the camera just inches from the cup facing forward even though the cup was being held by a person to emphasize the coffee cup perspective.
During the quarantine, I’ve found myself taking more walks to get sunshine and exercise. This has been the perfect time to really focus on the people and things that make me truly happy. My walks have been helpful as a way to surround myself with nature, which is where I find myself more mindful and calm. It’s also really important to me to surround myself with beauty. This photo essay was of one walk specifically, because I wanted to highlight how one can find so many instances of beauty if they really look for it.
I live in University Gateway so I take lots of walks near the village and around campus. Quarantine can often come with feelings of isolation and I know that my gray-walled apartment room can get dull, and I often immediately feel better when I step outside into our red-brick, plant filled campus. Taking walks and sending letters to friends has been great for my mental and physical health, and even my creativity. I’m so inspired by nature and the play of light when it comes to my art, and I think that shows in my photos.
Shriya Jayanthi
Sophomore
