Road to Joy

A photographic exhibition

February 2 - May 10, 2023 (on view during normal library hours)

West Hollywood Library, 625 N. San Vicente Blvd

In conjunction with the City of West Hollywood’s WeHo Reads series producer BookSwell, we conducted a photo contest around the WeHo Reads theme: Road to Joy, specifically about finding joy in the midst of sorrow. This is a selection of photographs received in response to this photo contest. This photo competition was juried by writers/photographers Lynell George and Marisela Norte.

The Freedom of Self, First Place Winning Submission

Arpan Basu Chowdhury

I have captured this picture while passing by an unknown village on the Chota Nagpur Plateau. This sight made me awestruck. I saw an old person in a wheelchair, holding a reel in his hand, in order to facilitate his grandson's interest in flying a kite. The old man couldn't fly anymore. But his freedom could easily take a leap and transcend into flying colours of the future generation.

Everything Will Be Okay

Victoria Goring

This picture was taken during the pandemic.

Elegy for an Icon

Mateo Salas

A sunset illuminates a charred Joshua Tree’s spiky leaves rising above the scorched landscape, as a searing testament to nature’s enduring solace.

Letting Go

Don Tinling

This photograph was created for an exhibition called Every Clown Has a Silver Lining which was made with the support of a 2020 WeHo Artist Grant. Figurine from the collection of Charles Hollis Jones.

Skylight Sky

Natalia Affonso

After an almost-hurricane windstorm that broke my skylight and destroyed a couple of other things, I put despair on hold and became actually thankful for how small the damage was, given what could have been. Then, I see the light — life — the palm tree through the shards, still standing. At the bottom, a shadow that resembles a human figure also seems to pause to reflect and take everything in. Joy in sorrow.

Storm Inside

Gabriella Maria dos Santos Silva

Self-portrait representing fear, pain and anxiety in quarantine due to the Covid pandemic.

Sweet Melody

Alessia Piscopo

It was summertime and I was on holiday in Matera, Italy. While walking in the historic centre, I saw this man and his best friend sleeping, his dog. After some minutes, a crowd of people was all around him... with only the use of his hands and feet, he started to reproduce well-known melodies with the help of his dog's silicone toys. He smiled and felt the music in his soul, and he was happy to see people who appreciated his music.

The Last of Sympathy

Rick Castro

A portrait taken of my white cat Sympathy during the last few weeks of her life.

Untitled

Nadia Alamah

A woman in a black dress dances around a driftwood pile arranged like a tent, or a fire, as a means of coping with grief. I started my dances with grief last year as a means of coping with the loss of my grandmothers. I get dressed, go out, and when the right place finds me, I start dancing. I dance to express my love and grief and to find joy in knowing that wherever they are now, my grandmas are dancing, in bodies that no longer encumber them with age. And that wherever they are, they want me to be dancing too.

Heat. Wave.

Louis Jacinto

Despite our increase in global temperature, we dance to remain in joy.

My Spirit Is Bigger than my Being

Haro Istamboulian

We may, at times, feel small and helpless in this fast-paced world. But our hearts are huge.