A Quinceañera in New York City
“Quinceañera” translated from Spanish means “Fifteenth birthday” or “A girl celebrating her fifteenth birthday”, but in reality it is a major event in a girl’s life within the Latino culture. Turning fifteen for a girl, or having her “Quinceañera” celebration is a coming of age celebration, when a girl is then considered a woman.
Within the Latino culture it is immensely important and families from all walks of life with that culture invest in the celebration almost as if it were a wedding. Depending on the family, the Latin American country they are from or their own personal preferences, many different symbolic ceremonies are performed throughout the party.
I am personally half Latina (my mother is from Colombia, my father from Ireland), but I never got to celebrate my fifteenth birthday in this way because I moved to Colombia just after I turned fifteen! The Latino culture is always very close to my heart so I throughly enjoyed photographing this event and the family hosting it were absolutely great. And to make things even better, the “Quinceañera” and her friends were bombarding me with ideas and poses which made for a great selection of photographs that I’m sure they will look back on with a smile.
Click on the photos below for more details…
More photos can be seen here.
*All photographs are copyrighted, All Rights Reserved ©Luzita Francis. Copying, printing, and usage of these photographs without permission violates the copyright. Please contact me for information: info@luzitafrancis.com
Franklinton Tires
A Flickr meetup was scheduled for 5am on a Saturday (or was it Sunday?) morning. I didn’t plan to go, but when I found that I couldn’t sleep that night at all, I decided…. why not? A 40 minute drive in the countryside at 4 in the morning isn’t that bad at all!
The plan was to take photographs of an old abandoned mill, which is what we did… but we decided to walk around downtown Franklinton, a small town nearby. By downtown, I mean a main street that consisted of two or three blocks. We were a large group… approximately 10 of us. I was the only girl in the group. One of us stumbled upon a tire retreading shop that was open (the only thing open at that time, by then 9am) and the owner invited us all in to take photographs.
Below is a small selection of the photographs I took, or you can see more here.
Two cokes and the pepper
The two cokes and the pepper pretended to watch the man walk by, when in fact they were checking out the hot lonely Perrier bottle with a rose in it.
Read the comments on this photo, which was originally posted here.
The Little Prince’s Planet – the later years
The Little Prince’s planet, after successfully growing spikes through professional botanical care, was lowered carefully on a string to earth. The planet will be suffocated under earth, but from it will grow a tree that will sprout out so quickly it’ll spike you in the bum.
Sweet gum seed, found at Geer Cementery (1850-1915), Durham, North Carolina
I have a love for graveyards and cementeries. You could associate death with them, but I find they are places where you can contemplate life. We’re really not around for that long, in the end.
Originally posted here.
I <3 U
Spray paint on a wall on the streets of Chapel Hill, North Carolina
It was nice to see this on a wall in Chapel Hill yesterday. I came home and was listening to a song by David Gray (Ain’t no love)… a part where the lyrics say:
“This ain’t no love that’s guiding me”
Something clicked in me. I looked back on moments and decisions in my life and asked myself if love was guiding me in those moments. Love for myself, love for my family, love for life, love for those around me, love for truth, love for what’s right, etc.
I realized that I should ask myself that more often, because it seems love hadn’t been guiding me for a whole big chunk there. If love is really guiding me through life. I dont’ want fear to guide me, that’s for sure.
Originally posted here.