Statement

An Unfamiliar Happiness

The age of COVID-19. I have no other words than “bizarre”. Luckily, I was not one to feel down but something changed inside me. I am content but this feeling seems different from the happiness I knew before. The ice cream I ate with my friends at the park became the cigarette on my balcony alone. Instead of going out at night, I have more sleepovers. I no longer wait for one true love but I feel joy just by seeing happy couples. I don’t miss the city noise and I feel relaxed walking down an empty town. I look forward to the growth of my plants instead of my friends. It’s not just “bizarre”, it feels more like I’m not myself.

Profile

Ahraun Chambliss

Ahraun is a California native that lives in western Japan. He tends to be introverted and does not do well with planned shoots, especially when the subject is someone he is unfamiliar with. Instead, he aims to document his mundane daily life with his close friends and the environment around him. By pairing his photos together to make diptychs, he tries to tell a story of what he thinks about, his delusions and how he feels about his environment. He finds joy in the trivial aspects of everyday life and hopes that his viewers will discover that joy through his photos.

Jury selection

The coronavirus has profoundly changed our relationship with our environment, it has changed our habits and our certainties. And yet daily life is made up of small, simple pleasures that must be appreciated and cultivated.

Links

• HP：https://cargocollective.com/heyilikeyou

  Instagram：@ahraun