By Santos Castaneda, Bartlesville High School
Zyer Henry believes in brief moments of beauty.
He wants to share that with the world.
He discovered his interest in photography in high school. He was with his best friend, Seth, outside after a basketball game. Zyer was looking at the sky, commenting on how he wished he could share this moment with other people. His friend suggested that Zyer should take a photo and post it on Instagram. The post then received 10,000 likes, which fueled him to further pursue his new-found interest in photography.
“I can like turn this into something,” Zyer said.
Zyer believes that there is beauty in everything, to him, it’s just about getting the right moment to photograph. He comments on how even the geometry of something like a tree can help accentuate the beauty in a photo. However, he mentions that he doesn’t like to photograph people. He doesn’t want to make anyone uncomfortable. Zyer knows that some people might feel uneasy about their picture being taken since he feels the same way about his picture being taken.
“You can see the beauty in a swamp,” Zyer said.
With his mom being in the military Zyer grew up regularly moving schools and starting a new life. It wasn’t until middle school that all of the moving started to have an impact on him emotionally. Zyer was bullied in middle school for not being as athletic as other kids. This adversity helped him to empathize with other people’s struggles.
Zyer’s ultimate goal is to make people happy with his photography. He wants to help people and boost their spirits. To further explore his passion for photography, he plans to attend the University of Oklahoma and major in creative media but he hopes that he can minor in photography. He wants to make sure that people have that outlet to help distract them from whatever might be troubling them since he didn’t have that in middle school. Overall, Zyer just wants to be nice and help make someone’s day at any opportunity he can.
“I want to make other people happy.” Zyer said, “Even if it’s at a sacrifice to myself, making someone else happy. I don’t mind doing it.”
