By Linde Chen
Claire Lyu joined the Collingwood family last year, and is now an active member of the school’s grad class of ’15 as a tennis player, dancer, and graphic designer. Through visual art, and photography in particular, Claire describes that she is able to “illuminate the details and slow down the movement around her to observe what [she] would otherwise miss out on, living the fast-paced life [she does].”
The inspirations behind her stellar achievements in photography today are mainly her father, who is himself an avid photographer, and her younger sister, who is often the subject of her portraits and other works. In one of her favourite pieces, Claire swiftly captures her sister’s brilliant smile and naivety under natural light.
To Claire, photography is her medium of expression for the creativity, emotions, and personal reflections she may not be able to convey properly through other means. For this reason, Claire does not frame her works around a particular theme, but rather bases her photos on whatever she can seize around her that interests her in the moment. For instance, on her recent university tour with the University Guidance department, Claire took the opportunity to photograph and subsequently photoshop various European-styled buildings, shops, cafés, etc.. What’s admirable and unique, therefore, is ultimately the heterogeneity, rather than homogeneity in what she produces, and what this heterogeneity reflects of her character and the sceneries that fascinate her. To her, art is about “freedom to explore, freedom to create, and freedom to continuously adapt new ways of finding my [her] voice.”
In the future, Claire sets her sights on pursuing business and management. Nevertheless, she hopes to bring along her long-standing passion for visual arts as she embarks upon her professional career. She is currently enrolled in Graphic Design 11 at Collingwood, keen to explore a new dimension with her present involvement in the arts. “It would be a pity to stop giving my time to art once I delve into the business community”, she comments. But Claire nonetheless plans to somehow incorporate her knowledge in graphic design and photography with a potential job in media advertisement or marketing.
We proudly congratulate Claire on her successes to date, and we look forward to the upcoming creations that indubitably would be just as phenomenal, if not more so.