- West: My name is West Whiting and I'm a senior
at Chetek-Weyerhaeuser High School.
- West Whiting
has always felt at home in art class.
- West: I think it was,
like, just something I was able to connect with.
Like, I didn't connect with many other subjects.
So, it just kind of felt like it was my niche, really.
- West had always loved drawing,
but when he got a camera his freshman year,
it opened up new creative possibilities.
- West: Once I got that, I really--
Like, my world, like, exploded.
I got to try all sorts of new kinds of things
and I got to really just expand my art world.
- Whether taking his camera with him on trips
or exploring his surroundings
in northwestern Wisconsin,
West is crafting images
that invite us to see the world differently.
- West: Kind of my whole thing
is showing beauty
in things that you normally would just walk right past,
I guess.
When I take pictures these days,
I mostly take macro photos of really little things.
Like, I can just be walking,
and look at a rain drop, and kind of just see
this beautiful thing
that otherwise people would just normally walk by,
just because they're like--
they're a reflection of our world.
If you get really close,
but they're all distorted and funny
when you look inside of them, so...
I guess, really, just my whole thing is
just showing beauty in things
that people normally wouldn't pay any mind to.
- West's attention to small things
is earning him some big honors.
- West: I kind of realized
that I was maybe onto something there when
I got a perfect score on my AP portfolio last year.
Like, it gave me a boost of confidence and I was like,
"Oh, maybe I'm not crazy.
Maybe this is really something interesting and something new."
- As he reflects on the past,
West is looking forward
to a future pursuing his artistic ambition
as a student at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design.
- West: Looking back, as a kid, I always thought, like,
"How am I going to get to a place where I can
do the things that I wanted?"
You know, like being a traveling photographer
or something like that.
And now, the door is right in front of me
and I just have to open it.