Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon Portland Community College

Trina Shaghafi | “Pomegranate 03”

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As a Persian-American, my goal was to capture the beauty of pomegranates before the end of winter. Pomegranates are a highly regarded cultural symbol for beauty, prosperity, fertility, immortality, and life. Most Westerners shy away from pomegranates because the process of cutting them can look very gruesome and bloody. Despite the process of peeling back the leathery skin, one discovers that the pomegranate seeds look like jewelry gems. Serving them onto a mirror was a meditation in itself of what beauty represents to me and finding what values I hold in regards to what makes something beautiful.