The fleeting and malleable nature of memories causes our most ordinary moments to become intertwined with emotions, feelings, song lyrics, idiomatic expressions and other passing thoughts. In this photo essay, Daily Bruin and Daily Californian photographers recall stories captured on disposable cameras over spring break. No two stories are the same.
. . .
Blue sky with fleecy clouds, trees in different shades of green and my neighbor’s colorful garden blooming make this springlike view from my balcony to kick off my spring break.
Found these pieces of broken hearts in a random bush around Westwood.
Sitting on Santa Monica State Beach, these deck chairs caught my eye with their bright red and yellow.
An encouraging message, “BE WELL LA STAY STRONG,” is displayed on the lightbox outside the building of Greenway Arts Alliance.
Urna Bajracharya (left), a fellow design media arts friend whom I haven’t seen since the school went remote, was back in town for spring break. With two other DESMA students, Valentin Nguyen (middle) and Anne-Fatima Syed (right), whom I also haven’t seen in a year, I had a painting hangout on Janss Steps before going on to explore the campus together.
The accidental overexposure of pink and yellow matching with the “LOVE” graffiti on a wall alongside Venice Beach.
My first time shooting a soccer game is also my first time seeing the Student Activities Center from this angle, which makes a beautiful scene with Wallis Annenberg Stadium under a full moon.
A snow-covered mountain framing a stormy sky.
A pleasant early morning stroll in the woods. (Left to right: Noah Bradley, Adin Esberg and William Webster)
Beating around the bush.
A quiet and peaceful view of Woodbridge’s North Lake Park in Irvine. There were a lot fewer ducks and geese than usual.
Starcourt Mall, the iconic set from season three of “Stranger Things,” was recreated in Downtown Los Angeles for an immersive drive-thru experience.
Fresh bouquet for Mom’s birthday courtesy of Flowerful, a popular floral shop in Laguna Woods, California.
The cake was sweet, but the memories were sweeter.
Borrowed Kenji Miura’s (left) kitchen so Lauren Kim (right) could borrow my food.
Under the rising sun, Gabriel Garcia and Isabel Gala wore pajamas to fight the cold and the sleep in their eyes.
I was reminiscing just the other day while Mini Cooper sold me coffee in Joshua Tree National Park.
Sandals on the shore, sand in my shoes forevermore.
“Time, wondrous time, gave me the blues and then purple-pink skies” — Taylor Swift, “Invisible String” (Left to right: Isabel Gala and Gabriel Garcia)
Cherry blossom daydream.
While strolling through Portland, Oregon, my friends and I were discussing how almost everyone in the city was wearing a beanie, and then behold — even the fire hydrants had beanies.
The stories we swear are true always have this dreamlike quality to them. If I could represent mine, they would look something like this. Every moment is a little bit disposable, I guess. Everything I used to create this collage was just moments from being thrown away. Maybe I should’ve left it in the trash.
Disposable cameras just don’t seem all that disposable to me. They’ll be brand new and still referred to as disposable just because of where they’ll eventually land up — in disposal. Until then, they’re at our disposal. Does that make sense?
In French, voir means “to see.”
Between Zoom lectures, sometimes I peer outside the window of my apartment to see other people my age going somewhere. That’s the thing about college students. We’re always trying to go somewhere. And we all have vastly different experiences of the same five blocks of overgrown apartment buildings.
When I’m presented with unstructured free time, I clean. And organize. Reorganize. Optimize. Chicken thighs. Caught by surprise. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches until we move out if we ever want to finish all of these jars.
Tree, store, museum. Nature, needs, fun. The attorney’s office, the shelves of Ikea, the outside of San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Shadow, sequence, texture. Tree, store, museum. Nothing extravagant, nothing much, nothing bad at all.
Forty-eight hours in Sedona, Arizona. View from the timeshare.
Sedona is a tourist town. Overpriced tea and Spanish guitar as we head into a record store.
Base of Zion National Park. (Left to right: Sam Gilman and Devin Dhaliwal)
Lost after veering off the path. Location? Unknown. (Right: Andrew Song)
All overheard:
“Why does this feel like ‘The Shining?’ Why am I wearing sandals in the snow?” (Left to right: Warren Lai and Chad Soares)
“Someone told me this ice was thick enough to stand on.” (Left to right: Felicia Lin, Duy Nguyen and Jessie Nguyen)
“Get my photo, man. I look introspective as hell.” (Left: Chad Soares)
Sky-high Uber prices compelled us to take a walk from Sawtelle to Westwood. Los Angeles is often regarded as a city for automobiles, but maybe any city is walkable if you try hard enough …
Dichotomous reactions to a day of tackling rental car mishaps — optimism and utter disillusionment. (Left to right: Ophelia Sin and Kelly Chen)
Nothing like fresh mountain air and all-terrain vehicle noises to wake you up after a cold, sleepless night of camping.
On a surprisingly quiet hike at Will Rogers State Historic Park. It’s good to know that the mountains and the boundless Pacific Ocean are always there for you, just a stone’s throw away from the UCLA campus.
Looking back at these three photos, my spring break seems like it was incredible. And it was. But definitely not as adventurous and beautiful as the photos would indicate.
Not only did I take pictures of only the coolest moments, but I also chose the best three from that already filtered pool of photos.
This double filtering of my spring break makes it seem like the most coming-of-age and outdoorsy week possible, when in reality, a majority of our time was spent playing board games and Xbox.
I almost feel bad not including some photos of all of us sitting in front of the TV. But who wants to see that?
(Left to right: Theo Wyss-Flamm and Isabel Dalmer)
Nice to see you.
Big blue beauty.
Clay bunny found shelter in Mami’s garden.
The perfect bite.
Poppies growing from concrete, everyday beauty.
Pick a color wisely.
Walking into shades of blue.
