During the winter of 2020, the Xander's perspective inspired me to make a second photo album of my female turtle, Maxxlonia, for her Instagram. It's actually where the idea of the city of Alpha came from. The name to me means something high above, metaphorically. I wanted to shine my perspective on the new photo album and make it sci-fi themed, just like the city of Alpha, and include a new kind of photography I had never used: experimental photography. I wanted to try out something no one had ever seen on a turtle's Instagram account. The concept, theme, photography, and everything else came to be unique.
The reason I chose experimental photography was to show that perfection's a social construct. It is different from what people consider as perfect or normal, but part of being Xander is that the universe is full of differences, not perfections and imperfections, from my perspective. So, through this photo album, I show my followers a part of what I see. They see my new photos and read the captions that may seem out of place, but they all connect to Xander, aka me. I never physically show up in the pictures of the photo album as only Maxxlonia, my female turtle, appears in the photos. It was made for her Instagram account, not mine. I had already done a previous photo album named 'PRISM,' so I wanted to do another one, for the creativity and to share.
There are six colors throughout the photos of the photo album: red, blue, green, white, pink, and yellow. The colors don't have a specific meaning. They are there to make my feed look organized. The colors are in pattern and if they weren't, they would appear messy on my Instagram feed. Although, I did say that perfection is a social construct, so an "imperfect" feed wouldn't matter. However, I like to see the pictures in my feed in pattern or order. The whole photo album is significant to me as it showcases my new personality. It's like spewing my entirety on a photo album to share to the thousands of followers on my Instagram account. It was never meant for likes on Instagram, but to share my beloved work of art that came to existence on March 27, 2020 until September 2020. The photo album was released as a photo book on the website of Bookemon.com on September 23, 2020 at 12AM EST.
The likes on my new Instagram posts have decreased compared to my 'PRISM' photo album's posts, but my new photo album was never meant to receive a large amount of Instagram engagement, so it does not matter. And again, the universe is an illusion from my eyes, so do a certain amount of likes matter? No, as they have no value to me. So, I only share the photos from my photo album on Instagram for my followers to see. I could have kept them to myself, but I like the way Instagram has designed their platform, so adding the photos of my new photo album makes it more fun. Plus, I planned on sharing the photo album even though I had adapted a new rule, which was not to socialize as much as possible to protect myself from humans that may hurt me either physically or emotionally. It's actually one of the reasons why I stopped texting my online friends from May to July 2020, but today, I text some of them. I decided to socialize with anyone I wanted to socialize with, if I think it's safe to socialize. I don't feel comfortable socializing with people, especially if it's a lot. After all, I have PTSD from being bullied as a kid in school, plus my autistic brain's emotional sensitivity, so I am more vulnerable to being hurt emotionally, if I socialize with people that turn out to be mean or become offended by something I say without intention to offend, so I try my best to avoid or limit my socialization. I admit, at times, I like to socialize, but I tell myself that I shouldn't go far with it or say much. If everyone on this planet were kind enough, then I wouldn't have to avoid them. I could try my best to communicate with them! But, I still would rather text as a form of communication as it's easier than talking.
I had to think so much about this and work it out in my notes to read them and sort my thoughts out easier, during the early weeks of my photo-album making. I don't know if I'll make another photo album in the future because I can't see my decisions in the future, but if it's still possible, then I will definitely make another one. It's so much fun! The idea of a photo album came from music albums done by famous artists like Taylor swift and Katy Perry. Each music album has their own theme, sound, and music era or time period, so I wanted to to create something like it. I couldn't do music albums, so I wanted to try something out with my turtle, as I was in my early stages of doing professional photography of my turtle, Maxxlonia, and so, came the idea of a photo album. I don't know if anyone else has done something like me, but I haven't seen anyone done it. So far, I have done two photo albums: PRISM and Alpha. Will more come? I hope so!
YOU ARE READING
Youthful Blossom
Non-FictionAn autobiography book about my mental health challenges during my adolescence, where major life-changing events occurred, in the United States. Read to find out what happened!
