Abington senior Sean Moran discovered a passion for art and photography. Recently, sophomore Chris Lussier, a frequent Green Wave Gazette contributor, conducted a virtual interview with Moran about what inspires him. 

Chris Lussier: When did you first show an interest in music and photography?

Sean Moran: Prior to my freshman year, my ambitions towards music and photography were solely as hobbies. I played trombone since third grade, but I never held music to a great importance in my life. As for photography, I would occasionally edit screenshots from movies and try to make them look cool, but other than that I only took a lot of pictures without any real purpose other than documenting my life through pictures. In late freshman year I started feeling more ambitious towards both, and in my sophomore year I decided to take a photography and editing class as well as purchase a keyboard and guitars.

CL: What inspires you to do photography?

Moran: My main inspiration to start photography was based on my childhood photos that I had taken on my Nintendo DSi back around 2009.  I had taken roughly 500 pictures in that time of random things like my family, Lego sculptures, homes, and sometimes just my own face with strange filters. It was all for fun, but looking back at those pictures I realized that in a way I had inadvertently created a window into my past that I could look back on whenever I felt so. I’ve always aspired to take pictures that mean something since then, and so a lot of what I photograph is about what I want to remember, or what I want other people to remember about their own lives. Some may call me a “Nostalgia Junkie” which, albeit isn’t exactly what I’m going for, nostalgia is a big factor in my pictures, and it is what I want many of them to express to the viewer.

CL: What is your favorite part about photography?

Moran: My favorite part about photography is the freedom and room for creative expression. There are definitely techniques and guidelines that you want to follow when trying to take pictures of a certain type or style, but the truth of the matter is that you have freedom to make whatever you want. You choose the color, style, emotion, theme, and overall message that your work has, and not many activities give you that much freedom.

CL: What is the hardest part about photography?

Moran: The hardest part of photography for me is definitely finding inspiration within a deadline. When I have an idea for a picture, I will not take it immediately, rather wait for an opportunity which works for my idea. This can take days and sometimes even months, but some of my recent pictures are based on ideas I have been waiting on for over two years, such as the pictures of the abandoned buildings in Southfield that I’ve wanted to take since my freshman year. When given a deadline, it can be difficult to find inspiration as usually it comes naturally to me when I see something that catches my eye. This can lead to less than satisfactory photos that do not feel as creative and expressive as I usually try to make my content.

CL: Do you plan to continue with photography in college?

Moran: I am not sure if I want to go into a career based around photography and/or visual art; however, I certainly want it to play a role in my college life as it has helped me express myself in ways my words never could. It is also a great outlet for stressful situations as I can take something negative and turn it into art that, albeit expresses morbid emotion, can still hold value to me and the viewers who sometimes can empathize [and see] their own struggles with mine which I express in photographs.

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