Below are some of our favorite photos from this week’s Through Our Eyes. Each week the selections are chosen by WKUPJ students. Stay tuned for more to come!
First Place
Jennifer and Cameron share ice cubes and a few kisses on a hot evening in Tevistion, California. Both their parents emigrated from Oklahoma with the rest of the “Black Okies” in mid-twentieth century to work the fields of the Central Valley. Jennifer moved to the cities briefly but has been forced to return to her family’s crumbling home to raise her two children, Naynay and Jordan. | Gabe Scarlett
Second Place
Aderemi Ogunleye, formerly a resident of Nigeria, West Africa, poses for a portrait after Oath of Allegiance to become a naturalized citizen of the United States at Central Library on Tuesday, June 19, 2018. | Ebony Cox
Honorable Mention
More than a week after the arrest of her father Jose (who is a green card holder), Natalie Garcia tries to console her daughter Marley outside their home in Arleta, California from which Jose was taken. He had been watering his lawn and preparing for a shift driving for Uber, one of his three jobs, when ICE officials detained him for deportation for a charge from two decades ago. Since his arrest, Marley has slept in his bed and lays out his clothes each day to pretend that he is there. “I put his perfume on sometimes,” Marley explains. “I close my eyes. I cry.” | Gabe Scarlett
Isla mujeres. | Fahad Alotaibi
My sister Gabrielle carries our brother on her hip after we swam in our backyard pool. In the 6 months I spent away, she turned 15, started high school. She has long legs and a boyfriend who drives his truck to our house to visit her on the porch. I am grateful, though, when she asks me to braid her hair, to make her macaroni and cheese or drive to the Dollar Store for finger nail polish and candy bars. She tells me this is temporary, she will have a license and her own car soon enough. I wish this away, selfishly clinging to her girlhood, hoping to keep her with me on the porch. | Morgan Hornsby
Jadon came from Texas with his family to swim in the waters off Santa Monica Beach. June, 2018. | Gabe Scarlett
For 16 years, Ally VanHook has been practicing and performing in dance. Her childhood consisted of constant training and showcases while growing up in Somerset, KY. Now a sophomore at WKU, she plans to use her double major in Dance and Marketing. | Bailey Cooke
Jimmy Hurt throws his 15-month-old in the air to get her to smile at the Field of Flags at Oaklawn Memorial Gardens on Monday, July 2, 2018. | Ebony Cox
Anthony, would not give his last name, 45, grew up as a Eight Tray Crip but now lives life with a drug addiction. “I am to old to be throwing up my gang set, but my life now is great, I’m a crackhead and I love every moment of it, until I get the next one,” Anthony said. | Michael Blackshire
A Cal Firefighter walks back to a safe zone after the smoke from the Holy Fire causes major him to evacuate the given area in Lake Elsinore, California. The Holy Fire blaze burned 23,136 acres across across Orange and Riverside Counties. | Michael Blackshire
Major Brett Ringger sets up to examine Isaac Dunn, 9, of Morgan County while his sister Mercedes Dunn, 3, watches at the Lee County High School on Monday. The eye examination is one of the health services offered as part of Operation Bobcat, a military training mission to practice medical set up for times of emergency, conflict or disaster. | Silas Walker
Chauncey Adams, 7, takes shelter from the sun under the play structure at Castlewood Park on Thursday, July 11. According to the National Weather Service, on Thursday, the heat index reached 103º F. Near by in Louisville the heat index on Thursday reached 107º F. | Silas Walker
Molly Richardson, 5, of New Jersey jumps onto CJ Visser, 10, of Lexington during the Lexington Junior League Charity Horse Show at the Kentucky Horse Park on Saturday evening. | Silas Walker
A member of the congregation waits in the entryway of First Baptist Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In 1960, Pastor Martin Luther King Jr. spoke in this building, gathering over 1,500 Oklahomans to hear his message. | Morgan Hornsby
A portrait of Mackenzie on a weekend visit with her mother, Alyssa Yarnell, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Alyssa lost custody of Mackenzie while facing drug addiction, but recently graduated from a local rehabilitation program called Women in Recovery. Alyssa is now sober with a job and apartment and is fighting for legal custody of her daughter. | Morgan Hornsby
Alicia Forbit swims in the Arkansas River after visiting her husband Chris in Dick Conner Correctional Center. Since they were married in the visiting room of the facility two years ago, Alicia has spent every Saturday with him. Chris has been incarcerated for 8 years. “The hardest thing about all of this is the things that we miss out on doing together, and always feeling like a piece of me is missing. We continue to live life, go to the river and swim, to the water park, on picnics, all the things that everyone else does, but in the middle of the fun, there is always a flash of “Chris would be doing this if he was here,” Alicia said. | Morgan Hornsby
Guzy is one of four people to win the Pulitzer Prize four times and the only journalist with that achievement. The lecture and presentation of her work will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Jody Richards Hall Auditorium. Her visit to WKU is sponsored by Nikon.
Internationally acclaimed documentary photographer Stephanie Sinclair will be presenting her work at Western Kentucky University on Wednesday, September 12 in Jody Richards Hall auditorium at 7:30 p.m. Ms. Sinclair has photographed a wide range of subjects, but her 15-year “Too Young to Wed” project has focused particular attention on young women throughout the world who are being forced into marriage. One of Ms. Sinclair’s most recent projects, “A Story Half Told,” is about women and men battling metastatic breast cancer.