The Color of Reading is a series of documentary photographs for my senior thesis at Albright College.

The photographically based works entitled, “An International Person’s View of Reading”, capture a view of Reading, PA with a digital camera. Japanese people see the world differently than people in Western culture because they naturally have mono no aware in their culture. Mono no aware states that beauty is a subjective rather than objective experience, a state of being ultimately internal rather than external. Beauty in the West is sought in the ultimate perfection of an external object: a sublime painting, perfect sculpture or intricate musical composition, a beauty that could be said to be only skin-deep. The Japanese ideal sees beauty instead as an experience of the heart and soul, a feeling for and appreciation of objects or artwork—most commonly nature or the depiction of—in a pristine, untouched state. The Color of Reading is edited with an exaggeration of the local color for emotional and psychological emphasis. The color also represents social structures within a city in decline.