Aaron Idelson
Turning 25 In A Global Pandemic
Truthfully, when we went into lockdown in March I never thought that there was any possibility I would be spending a birthday in quarantine. I felt bad for everyone born in April, May, June... but assumed the rest of us would be fine. Oh well,
Turning 25 in itself is very weird. It's not bad, it's just weird. I still feel 18, but at the same time I feel 40. But if we learned anything over the past 10 months, it's that time is nothing more than a social concept, right? How can we have been in quarantine 10 months already?
Since I knew I was gonna be in quarantine, I had no real plans of celebrating. On the 10th a few friends and I went to Malibu, got take out Thai food and watched the sun set. It was cute, quaint, and beautiful. And it felt fitting. I didn't feel comfortable asking tons of people to gather to humor me when 1/5 people in LA county are estimated to have Covid right now. The thought of it just made me anxious.
The next day my roommate Hayden humored me and helped me have a birthday photoshoot. A cake from Susiecakes, pink background from Samy's Camera, and a few gold balloons, and we were golden. Plus, with the new Theory sweater I had thrifted (a $350 dollar sweater for $30.... I love LA thrift shops), I knew exactly what I'd be wearing.
Some of my favorite photos can be seen below. I had no idea what to do to make it a bit witty/different from every other birthday shoot, so I brought it back to my never-ending appreciation for Spongebob. "What's funnier than 24?"

I've recently fallen deep in love with creating collages in Photoshop. It comes from my need to feel like I'm doing something different. Literally nothing else. The one above isn't the final version, but one of my nearly completed versions.
The rest of my favorite photos can be found below :))))