Mitchell Aragona has spent his life surrounded by water parks. His grandparents own Zoom Flume in East Durham, and his father now owns his own business that focuses on the industry. So it came as no surprise that the Shaker High School senior would plan to follow in the family tradition.
This past February break, while joining his father in Memphis, Tenn., to work on a water parks, Aragona began spending time in one of the activity center’s computer rooms. While observing the technical aspects of the park, he immediately became intrigued by the back of one of the computers. Although he was on vacation, he was simultaneously working on a Computer Graphics II assignment for school, and he needed to take 100 photographs for it.
“I thought the wires were really cool, (the way they were) sticking out,” Aragona said.
Using his digital camera, Aragona snapped a few shots of behind the computer tower. One in particular caught his eye later when he looked through his work. While the photo was clearly the back of a computer, with its colorful wires plugged into compartments, he realized with another glance, it also resembled that of a dreary, almost futuristic cityscape.
“I thought it was a cool picture at first but I didn’t think anything of it until I took a second look and I thought it was really cool,” Aragona said.
Aragona’s photo, “Walk Down Memory Lane,” won’t stay just an assignment for his computer class. For the next year, the image will be on display at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., after being chosen as the winner of the 2013 Congressional Art Competition for the 20th District of New York through Congressman Paul Tonko. The competition, which started in 1982, is sponsored by the Members of the U.S. House of Representatives and seeks to encourage artistic talent among high school students nationwide.
The photo was judged by two local arts professionals, Sara Boylen and Andrew Hersh, as the best of 40 entries from 19 school districts, and it will be on display next to the other winning entries spanning the nation. This is the third year in a row a Shaker student has received top recognition in the competition. In 2011, Jennifer Chung took first place and in 2012, Erin Bryk was the first runner up. As the winner, Aragona received two plane tickets to tour the exhibit in D.C.
Aragona said his art teacher, Paul Aubin, had told him to submit the photo to the competition.
“I just feel like every now and then with students there’s an opportunity … students bump into something. He got very lucky with the shot that he has,” Aubin said. “That particular shot has a lot of merit.”
Both Aubin and Aragona said people continue to ask whether the shot is authentic, or how much photo enhancement work was done on the image. Aragona said he contemplated editing it a bit by changing the lighting, but said it would be make the “appearance a little weird” and would take away from “the awesome effect where it looks like a cityscape.”
“It’s very professional looking. I don’t question whether or not he did it … he had other shots that were similar,” Aubin said. “It’s just completely different than a lot of other photos that students have taken.”
Aragona said he’s very interested in art, but only started taking photos a couple of years ago after being inspired by a friend. He said he also loves to draw and drew a mural of himself on his bedroom wall.
While his award-winning photograph focuses on computer wires, Aragona said he prefers taking pictures outdoors and loves nature.
“Anything environmental, really. I like going outside. I like taking pictures of trees,” Aragona said.
Aubin said he was very excited for his student’s success.
“It just so happens that they saw the same value in it that we did,” Aubin said. “It couldn’t have happened to a better person.”
As he finishes up his senior year, Aragona said he plans to attend Mohawk Community College to study computer graphics. He said he would like to go into his father’s field of work and possibly work with advertising or engineering with water parks.
“You need to have an artistic mind for building water parks. If it doesn’t look fun, who’s going to go?” Aragona said.