The other day my boyfriend said something that stood out to me, he said “the best place to get delicious are from “hole in a wall” places.” I immediately thought of all the places in Flushing, Queens I’ve been to that aren’t chain restaurants or upscale restaurants that serves good, authentic cuisine. The picture above is Hong Kong style steamed rice noodle drizzle with hoisin and peanut butter sauce garnish with sesame seeds from the food court at a Flushing mall. The dish looks delicious because the color of the two sauces coated evenly on the rice noodle. It  is also a comfort food which in my opinion makes it even more delicious.

I think this tres leches look delish because of its shiny color and because the tres leches cake melts in my mouth as I try it, sticky with fudge frosting on my tongue. The bitter and simultaneously sweet smell of it puts me in a serene mind state. With the rich deep shades of the frosting on top of delicious layers of condensed milk. this cake acts as a slice of happiness on a white styrofoam plate. the beautiful frosting tastes as great as it looks.

In my opinion, for spiritualism to be documented effectively, a very abstract component must be lured out of one’s viewer–faith. A viewer doesn’t have to share the photographer’s religious denomination to appreciate the work; a viewer only has to have a smidgen of understanding, that openness of the mind. Without it, the viewer would not ‘see’ anything at all, no matter how skillful the photographer is or how convincing the image turned out to be.

For me, personally, I believe that spiritual documentation is possible. Although not a very religious person myself, I simply think that anything is possible in this world. In this case, however, a photographer must be fully immersed into the subject: He or she has to believe it. For it being valuable, sure, for any type of evidence towards its accreditation (or otherwise) must be kept and accounted for. It’s like graffiti, once rejected for its impetuous and rebellious nature, but is now considered an art form; spiritual documentation can be the same: it might not receive a great deal of following right now, but people would eventually see how its uniqueness can be translated to creativeness. And then, again, one doesn’t have to believe in its validity for it to be considered beautiful.

Intrusive? Yes, for the camera being present is like a perpetual intruder. I feel that it undermines the sanctity of the supernatural, and with popularity of image editors out there, a non-believer could easily discredit a photograph by referring to these software. Ultimately, manifestations must be experienced to be called true. A photograph is merely a medium to speak of its existence, and it is only up to the viewer to believe it or not.

The photo that you see above is an once ordinary cream puff that we transformed by adding multiple ingredients made in Professor Jacus Baking 1 class. We stuffed the bottom of the cream puff with vanilla pastry cream then topped it with frozen raspberries and finished it off with cream Chantilly. In several of the raspberry cream puffs you can see the juices from the raspberries itself flowing alongside the vanilla cream suggesting that the raspberries are full of sweetness. The brightness of the fruit can also suggest that the fruits are crisp. The flakiness of the cream puff allows for a slight crunch factor in the desert. You can see that the texture of the Chantilly is light and delicate the way it peeks through the top hole of the cream puff top.

Although I am not completely acquainted with the most popular approaches on photography back in Evans’ time, I feel that his technique makes the subjects look truly unaffected and real. You can see this through the effortlessness of the shots–subjects looking wary or being unfocused or even not looking at all. Others have no idea that they are being photographed, thus simply doing what they normally do, from reading the newspaper to snoozing or biting one’s lip in deep thought. I really find this fascinating (the ability to capture a subject’s inner unfiltered emotions), because I believe that capturing such moments take a certain dexterity and timing that cannot be replicated all over and over again. For some reason, it reminds me of Southworth and Hawes, as they are famous for drawing out the personalities of their subjects. However, in contrast to them, Evans was able to do such an undertaking without the fluff of props and, rather, by just taking in whatever is available at the moment. As for similarities to today’s riders, I would say that there would be instances when riders would also exude the same facial reactions as Evans’ subjects. For example, if taken at the right moment, without the camera being seen, such artlessness can be captured from today’s riders. Unfortunately, today’s riders are very acquainted with the camera (and it’s various forms), so some photos might feature subjects deliberately posing or altering their reactions.