11th Annual Palo Alto Weekly Photo Contest
Second Place, Peninsula People
"Boy with Soccer Ball"
By Emily Yates-Doerr
About Emily Yates-Doerr
;) Click on photo for larger image. |
Dusk was setting over the Le Mar trailer park in Redwood City.
Kids were outside playing, as they usually do in the evening,
and there were cars coming in the background.
"The scene was reminiscent of a time in America when kids
would play outside and cars came home in the evening, and all
the busyness that was happening," said Emily Yates-Doerr.
She felt that she just happened to be at the right place at the
right time to catch a boy playing with a soccer ball on her camera.
The car headlights were a significant aspect of the image.
"He's illuminated, and it seems quite dream-like,"
she said. "Of course it's artificial, because they're not
real spotlights, but car spotlights, but here he is with a soccer
ball, and he could be scoring a goal. Although it's really in
Redwood City and he's only 13 years old, the lights give a sense
that it's larger than that . . . like a dream that he's becoming
a star."
Yates-Doerr, who has been photographing the community for the
past two years, took the photo in 35 mm format and developed it
at the Stanford photography laboratory.
"I've always been interested in things that are moving,"
she said. "I like to develop a film and go, 'wow, I don't
even remember taking that because it happened fast.'"
She is getting her master's degree in Latin American studies and although she has no plan to pursue photography professionally, she will "always use photography as a way of understanding the world."
-- Lulu Wijaya
Registration now open
Sign up for the 33rd annual Palo Alto Weekly Moonlight Run and Walk. This family-friendly event which benefits local nonprofits serving kids and families will take place on Friday, Oct. 6 at the Palo Alto Baylands.
