Ashna Satpathy Walking past the second floor, it was difficult not to notice Lily Campbell’s stunning photography. From her picturesque landscapes to her seemingly nonchalant candids, Lily captures beauty through her eyes and presents it in a unique and natural form.   Lily first got into photography when she was super young but hadn’t truly realized until later when she stole her mom’s and sister’s cameras to take pictures of everything from the couch to the plants outside. At the age of seven, she “begged Santa for a digital camera for Christmas,” and she still remembers this camera. “It was a small, clunky green Fujifilm Finepix point and shoot camera,” she said. “It was my prized possession. I took pictures of everything.” Her interest in photography ramped up when she got her first Nikon, a D3100 like her sister’s. “I toted it everywhere and used it religiously,” she remarked. Additionally, she was always the first to offer to take photos of someone or the first to whip out her camera when she saw a beautiful landscape. Soon enough, as Lily got older, she got more and more interested in photography as an art form instead of something she did in her free time. After taking Photo 1 and Advanced Photo during her junior year, Lily took an ISP with Ms. Ross in portraiture. Lily explains, “Most of my photos are spur-of-the-moment ones I took of my camp friends while in Alaska or ones I took in Cuba. The ones, however, that were both calculated and spontaneous were at the Chicago Women’s March. The set of photos from the March are all incredibly important to me because they all tell a different story, reflect a different emotion. Truly, those photos are so important to me because I was able to capture a part of history, a time of political contention when women in Chicago gathered up their picket signs and coats and marched for a better tomorrow.” Lily decided to do an art show because, according to her, “Ever since I was in middle school I looked forward to my art show. It was a chance to be featured, to be seen, and to be appreciated. It would be a time for me to admire my own work and step-back and look retrospectively at my work. Truthfully, the best part of my show wasn’t even how many people came to support me (although I gave every single person that did a huge bear hug for letting me have that moment and appreciating my work) but the conversations I had with patrons of the show. I never knew that so much thought went into my photography until people asked me questions about it. The answers just flowed out. I was explaining my complicated and backwards artistic vision and they were hanging on to every word. It made me truly feel like an accomplished artist to know that people wanted to hear how I had created something. It was an incredibly rewarding experience. I remember my 8th grade, middle school art exhibition and feeling the same way but on a smaller scale. Since then, I knew this show would be the pinnacle of not only my time at Latin but my time as an emerging photographer.” In terms of what Lily plans on doing with photography in the future, she explained that “Right now, my future with photography is undefined. Going into college, I know I want to continue photographing my friends and family as well as nature but I don’t want to major in photography. I never want to feel like photography is a chore to me. I never want to feel like I’ve fallen out of love with it, which is what I worry will happen if I spend my college years constricting myself to one passion and one passion only.” Regardless of whether you enjoy photography or not, Lily’s photos are undeniably pleasing to the eye, and they allow one to appreciate this art form. Stay tuned for more of Lily’s photography by keeping up to date on her social media platforms, especially following @lilycampbellphoto on Instagram.]]>