A Birthday in Two Worlds: Expectations vs. Reality

At Parsons, I was assigned a project exploring the contrast between life before and during COVID. Inspired by the split-screen narrative in 500 Days of Summer, I created a piece titled "Expectations vs. Reality", which follows a young girl experiencing her birthday as it unfolds in reality versus how she imagines it. To bring the dreamlike contrast to life, I experimented with visual texture—placing colorful wrapping paper over my camera lens to create a soft, surreal effect, similar to the aesthetic used by Petra Collins.