If you haven't yet heard about Alena McQuarter, don't worry, you will. At 15, she was the youngest Black person to be accepted into medical school and the youngest intern at NASA. A few of her other recognitions include Forbes 30 Under 30, TIME Kid of the Year and a President's Volunteer Service Lifetime Achievement Award. Her family happens to be pretty great, too.
Like so many assignments at ASU, I was tasked with photographing something that had never been photographed before: a new virtual reality biology module called Dreamscape Learn. Typically in VR photography you see a static image of a user wearing goggles in a classroom or home. My goal was to turn the experience inside out. Along with graduation photography, these are the highest performing images enterprise-wide. In fact, they were so popular, we redid it in 2024.
Emily Karlzen launched Arch Rift with the goal to make commercial space tourism more comfortable. Beginning with a design for an automatically deploying oxygen helmet, she has Zoom calls with NASA astronauts on the regular for insights and feedback. Planned mid-pandemic, there were virtual scouts in the Los Angeles area, wardrobe was overnighted and after an exhaustive search, the helmet and suit were rented from a local resident.
How would you photograph Artificial Intelligence? To help, I found a team on campus who are making strides in visualizing AI (their tips: avoid robots and the color blue), then met with AI researchers and asked them more about how they work. August, who lives in Oregon, uses AI to find ways for those with brain conditions, like locked-in syndrome, communicate. Two other researchers took break from their Alzheimer's research and shared the visuals they use in their work. We MacGuyvered a (really) elaborate studio set-up and then ... magic.
After the loss of her father to pneumonia, Charity Bhebe knew she wanted to pursue career saving lives. We followed Charity on her journey from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe to Tempe and then on to Cambridge in pursuit of her goal of applying medical research to curing disease.
This entry-point of the University focuses on ASU's innovative spirit with James Turrell's 'Air Apparent' installation in the foreground, flanked by Biodesign Buildings B and C.
Scott Biersack, a local chalk artist, created a custom chalk wall installation for commencement. As they entered, incoming grads were provided with chalk and added to the mural. It served as a backdrop for their photos and the resulting images were used for brand photography throughout the following year.