Senior Genna Whittell amazed students and faculty with her latest piece of photography. Her natural talent was showcased during Community’s “Spotlight on the Arts” and I got to know Genna’s inspiration behind the piece, as well as her process and how she developed an interest for photography.

Genna began setting up her artwork by brainstorming ideas centered around a green smoke bomb she had lying around. She also wanted to “create a delicate piece that relies primarily on shadows and highlights within the smoke.” The artwork perfectly captures a balance of delicacy and creativeness she found with a green smoke bomb. To actually create the piece, Genna used digital photography and took the photo in a boulevard underpass near her house. She got some close friends to help and had one of them hold the smoke bomb and wave it around. Genna’s process sought the creative group thinking Marymount prides themselves on by showcasing how working with your friends can create a masterpiece.

Genna’s photographic brilliance developed at a young age; she “always kind of had a knack for keeping memories.” In fact, she used to run around with her sisters with a small army of disposable cameras in her backpack! In 8th grade, Genna received her first quality digital camera, and it was then that she started to develop an interest in photo as an art instead of a hobby or for posterity’s sake. During high school, Genna saved all of her babysitting money in the pursuit of a real DSLR! This advancement made Genna realize that any chance of her not pursuing photography was absolutely impossible, and our senior class couldn’t agree more!

We have watched her grow into an insanely talented photographer and are blessed to have such talent not only capture our memories from high school like our retreats, plays, spirit weeks, etc., but also display her genius through more formal outlets like AP photography classes, here at Marymount. Genna loves to spend her free time planning out new narrative concentrations and projects; we can’t wait to see what is next for her!