With a battle cry and a pillow raised high in his hand, he is ready to deliver a blow to the back of his target. The other two band members pile onto the fourth who is laughing at their childish antics, all captured in less than a second.
The famous “Beatles Pillow Fight” shot, taken by Harry Benson, is what inspired Brian Le, a third-year biochemistry student, to pursue his love of photography.
“It wasn’t like one of those pictures where everyone just stands still. It was like a moment in time, and I think it’s really cool. I really wanted to get into that,” he said.
“Everyone always says a picture is worth a thousand words, but I think it’s worth more.”
Le plans to participate in a photography contest this quarter by Pacific Ties, a UCLA newsmagazine, by submitting a photo that portrays his passion for photography.
“It’s a really cool thing, even though it’s not for money or anything. I’ve never done a photography contest, so I just thought it would be really cool to enter and see if I can do well and see how it turns out,” he said.
Pacific Ties is the oldest student-run Pacific Islander magazine in the nation, according to the magazine’s Web site. It’s a quarterly publication that focuses on a variety of issues relevant to the Pacific Islander community including politics, culture, arts and entertainment.
This is the second time Pacific Ties has hosted a photography contest for readers.
The theme of the contest is passion. A photo entry should illustrate what the applicant is passionate about.
The winner’s photo will be published in the winter edition of the magazine.
“A lot of students at UCLA, they’re in a certain major but they might be doing it because their parents told them to or because they know they can find a job later, but it’s not their passion,” said Claudia Li, a third-year international development studies student and photographer for the magazine.
Li said she wanted to choose an inclusive topic, and students do not need to be photographers to participate in the competition.
“Passion itself is a really broad subject, so we want to make it really welcoming,” she said. “A lot of it is about their story.”
The contest is open to all students, and participants can submit their photos along with a short description on the Facebook event “Pacific Ties Winter Photo Challenge” by Feb. 6.
“It’s really cool because it’s not too specific, and it’s not too generic. It’s just something you love a lot so it allows you to express yourself in whatever way you interpret passion. It just allows you to be yourself,” Le said.
Li added that the magazine chose to host the contest on Facebook because it is a convenient way for students to submit their photos and to publicize the event in one mass message.
“Facebook allows everyone to network and allows a way to tell everyone about who they are, what they are and their mission. It’s an easy way of exposure and an easy way of getting information spread around,” Le said.
Le said prior to receiving the Facebook invitation to the contest, he had never heard of the magazine but will probably start reading it now.
Maria Iu, a fourth-year communication studies student and editor-in-chief of the magazine, said they chose to host the contest because they wanted to give readers the opportunity to have their work published and to show them they can participate in the magazine.
“I want people to know that there are alternative forms of media out there and that we’re committed to providing a voice for the community,” she said.
In addition to submitting a photo for the competition, Marla Goodman, a fourth-year history student, is participating in the magazine by writing an article about her summer abroad at Peking University in China.
“It’s great that students can find, based on their cultural background and based on their interests, a magazine or a newspaper of any club on campus that’s what they like to do and express themselves. I think that’s really great, and that’s definitely been an important part of my UCLA experience,” Goodman said.
Though she said she does not think the photos need to go with Pacific Islander issues that resonate through the magazine, Goodman said her passion is the culture and language she experienced abroad.
“The theme, passion, is very important. Sometimes you think about certain countries, you tend to stereotype them,” she said. “This subject gives UCLA students the opportunity to go against that stereotype and show that passion is a really important part of these cultures.”
Iu said each issue of the magazine has a theme to tie the contents together. Last quarter, the theme was activism and education, which was also the theme of the photo contest.
“It’s a great way to keep things together and share one single message instead of having lots of different things that don’t really connect,” she said.