Project Proposal

For this documentary project, I am interested in taking a closer look at international students on campus. International students at Loyola Marymount University account for approximately 9.6% of the total number of students. As an international student who has been in the United States for nearly six years, I want to show people how we live in this foreign land. The United States is a very diverse country. When we are walking around on campus, people may not even realize that we are from all over the world. We study with domestic students, play with American friends, exercise with them, and more. When we are on campus, most of the time we look like “American college students”. However, at the end of the day, when we go back to our comfort zone, we have our own way of life, different languages, lifestyles, cultural backgrounds, and hobbies. We are a group of people who are far from home and family. Through this project, I will interview my three international friends, document their daily lives, and have interviews with them to understand the feelings of their experiences in the United States. I will mainly do portraits and still life photography. Portrait works will record their daily activities and they will be in colored. Still life work will include subjects brought by them from home or things they think are relevant to their families. These photos will be in black and white because they are part of their memory. 

I plan to spend a week or two with my friends who I have known for a while, but I want to know more about them. I will ask for their permission and follow them as they do their own things and take photos. In the shadow process, I will ask them questions about their feelings and experiences in the state. At the end of the project, I will make a documentary photography book that includes the stories of three international students.