Nariko’s Personal Statement:

Anyone can have an impact on the environment around them. It can be something as small as picking up litter to help clean up one’s community or something as large as creating a company to help water pollution on a scale as large as the entire planet. Events can cause ripple effects of change. This is just one thing I have learned this year at YouthBridge-NY. All it takes is one person to change one thing that they think i s wrong to create a snowball effect of a positive difference. There are so many problems that we face in our world - racism, sexism, bullying, and many more pressing concerns; but we can bet hat difference and take a step to end them.

Gandhi once said, “Be the change that you want to see in the world.” I have learned that this means that I must create and appreciate unity, diversity and community, for if I am to spread it, I must first embrace it myself. I believe that my photography shows a display of the amalgamation of cultures New York has to offer, not just through people, but through still life and objects as well. Despite a difference in cultures and traditions we all may have, we come together to create a unique community of individuals - New Yorkers. I don’t see my pictures as revolutionary, instead, an accurate depiction of how New York has always seem to have been - accepting, diverse, fast-paced and different; just as it should always be.