PHOTOJOURNALISM
On my 13th birthday, I got a subscription to National Geographic. In the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, while I was stuck at home, those glossy photos showed me there are stories quite literally everywhere — not just in Antarctica or the Amazon, but in suburban America as well. Inspired by my new interest, I started by taking pictures of my bonsai trees (another interest I developed during the pandemic) and went from there.
Although my interest certainly has skewed more toward writing since becoming more immersed in journalism, I've never truly given up that love of photography.
Feature Bonsai Photography
What started out as a quick assignment for my Journalism 1 class soon turned into a full-page feature on bonsai.
With photos I took and cutlines I wrote, this ended up being both my first non-opinion story and my first photo story ever.
I soon realized the essence of bonsai needed more than just description to capture it, and so ended up crafting a photo story of different stages of the bonsai-shaping process.
Read the story here.
A Ficus Benjamina bonsai from AllShapes Nursery in Ringoes, NJ, sits on a rustic work bench. Its branches have been delicately wrapped in aluminum wire to shape them into the desired position.
A student apprentice from Kifu Bonsai Studio in East Greenville, PA, nimbly applies fine aluminum wire to a European Olive bonsai tree. Olives take many years to grow and are prized for gnarled bark as they age.
Bonsai tools, from left to right: a glazed ceramic clay pot, essential for proper drainage; annealed aluminum and copper wire, which are used to bend branches and tree trunks in a specific way; wire cutters, pruning shears, and branch cutters, each reserved for specific parts of the tree.
The best bonsai tools are handmade and imported from Japan. Bob Mahler, an East Greenville-based bonsai artist who trained in Japan, exclusively uses Japanese tools.
Mahler, like most bonsai artists, sources his pots from all over the world, but especially patronizes local potters.
Compare my original photos for the class assignment (right) to the ones that went to print (above).
Also check out some photos I took for Kifu Bonsai Studio, the place I apprentice and the second largest bonsai nursery in Pennsylvania, as well as some trees from various local and national exhibitions.
BONSAI
by
Ayaan Shah
Top Left: Take a stroll through this proverbial forest of well-curated and manicured Japanese Maples, from the shohin (tiny) to the hachi-uye (enormous) at Kifu Bonsai Nursery. Kifu's collection of shohin trees in locally unparalleled, With thousands of trees, Kifu Bonsai Studio is the second-largest bonsai nursery in the state, second only to Rosade Bonsai Studio in New Hope, PA. Top Middle: As fall begins to creep in, you can see tinges of reds, oranges, and yellows on this trident maple tree at Kifu Bonsai. Its shifting colors signal the changing seasons, adding a vibrant contrast to its delicate structure. Bottom Left: At the National Arboretum in Washington, D.C., a Japanese white pine is clearly visible as the first tree in the bonsai museum. With hundreds of fine ramifications, the tree is regularly pruned to keep in perfect shape. Top Right: An aged holly tree stands on display at the Jardín Botánico de Quito. The bonsai section of the garden, located in Quito, Ecuador, has over 120 trees of various types. The bonsai pavilion was funded by Jewish Ecuadorians in memory of those who escaped Nazi Germany to Ecuador during the Holocaust. Bottom Right: Recently added to Longwood Gardens' bonsai collection in Kennett Square, PA, a 50-year-old Japanese black pine sits at the center of one of the greenhouse entrances. This tree is regarded as especially stunning due to its developed branch structure and lush foliage.
News Photography
By far though, this is my favorite photo I've taken as a photojournalist. I captured this just over a year ago while covering Joe Biden's visit to our small town of Emmaus last winter, and it ended up on the front page of our February 2024 print issue. For context, these people were gathered just beyond the police barricades as Biden arrived.
Allow me to break down a couple of the reasons I love this shot so much.
1) First and foremost, the juxtaposition of the flags against the "Emmaus: a Community United for Progress" mural captures my attention. I find it ironic
Protestors and bystanders gather as former president Joe Biden visits local businesses in the Emmaus Triangle. Pro-Palestinian protestors hold signs opposing Biden's military support to Israel during the war in Gaza while pro-Trump individuals brandish flags reading "F--- Biden" and other slogans protesting the president. Biden's visit involved heavy security from local police and the Secret Service. Checkpoints were set up along Main St. and the Triangle was closed off a half hour before Biden's arrival.
that two groups with otherwise polar opposite views — pro-Trump and pro-Palestinian protesters — gathered "united" (albeit unintentionally) against Biden, as the black flag suggests.
2) There's so much going on in this photo, it's almost like a "Where's Waldo," trying to take in the whole scene, as my old photo editor described it. The protestors stand out the most, but there's other parts of the story visible here too. On the left, a police officer blocks a bystander from approaching. The couple on the right stare up at a military helicopter passing overhead. In the right corner, a press photographer sets up his camera while a Trump cardboard cutout peeks out from behind him. The scene is lively, and that's what I love about it.
Top: A man studies the Texas African American History Memorial, a monument erected in 2016 and designed by sculptor Ed Dwight. The statue features various Texan African Americans from the 16th century onward who contributed to literature, science, technology, and countless other fields. Bottom Left: A man reads about the Civil War on one of the various plaques detailing African American history. Bottom Right: A full statue on the rightmost edge of the memorial honors Houston native Dr. Bernard Harris Jr., the first African American to perform a spacewalk in 1995.
I took another set of my favorite photos halfway across the country in Austin, Texas. As part of the Asian American Journalists Association JCamp program, I worked with a small group to craft an article with photos about the continued existence and glorification of Confederate monuments on state capital grounds.
Part of that story included acknowledging the new memorials built over the years, including the Texas African American History Memorial. This monument was established in 2016 to honor African American history and contributions from 1500 to the present.
I loved exploring the intricately carved faces and reliefs on the memorial, learning the history of so many long-forgotten individuals.
While my co-writers focused on other famous statues on the grounds, like the infamous monument of Confederate president Jefferson Davis surrounded by his generals and other Confederate memorials,
I explored the more modern side of the story. I discovered the African American History Memorial on the periphery of the grounds, attracting little attention from compared to the other monuments. Seeing the contrast between these monuments—the towering Confederate statues at the heart of the Capitol grounds and the African American History Memorial tucked off to the side — underscored the ongoing struggle over historical memory in Texas. While one side of history has long been cemented in bronze and stone, the other is still fighting for visibility.
My experience photographing these monuments reminded me of the power of storytelling — not just through words, but through images that capture the tensions, contradictions, and progress in how we remember our past.
***Read more about this story in the "Diversity" section***