A mandala in the desert.

My Photo scholarship 2010 entry

USA | Saturday, October 16, 2010 | 5 photos

My name is Danya P. Hernandez, a 23 year old junior at the University of Texas at El Paso. I am a multimedia journalism student and because there is no photography major available, photography became an unfulfilled passion of mine. The first thing I did when I registered at U.T.E.P. was to look for a dark room. It shocked me to find it filled with printers and computers.
At the community college, there was a manual photography class where I learned the fundamental skills and fell in love with it. I still miss the smell of the chemicals fogging the air, but I’m eager to learn more about digital photography and one day become a professional.
With every morning drive towards the mountains, the beautiful sunrise reminds me of the unique place in which I make my life as a wife, student, and customer service representative. The people living in this beautiful valley at the foot hills of the Rocky Mountains, live embedded in a mixture of Mexican, American, and Chicano heritage.
The unique landscape found at U.T.E.P. incorporates a blend of Bhutanese architecture into the Chihuahuan Desert setting. Like a mandala, my pictures represent the beauty acquired by harmony. They portray the place where I come to gain knowledge and guidance, a place where I can feel focused and at ease.
I have connected deeply with this school, its teachers, and most of all its campus. Most students at U.T.E.P. overlook the Bhutanese architecture surrounding them, but I deeply identify with it. It gives me that strange sense that I am exactly where I belong. This place is a reflection of who I am inside. I am a Mexican with Asian ancestry and big dreams to see world through my lens.