Local artist looks for hidden gems through her viewfinder

Whether it’s marching under the Friday night lights with her flute in hand rocking out to ’80s ballads, or by traveling around Polk and other parts of Georgia in search for the beauty that is hidden within these very parts she lives, a local young artist uses her photography and music skills to bring out the hidden gems in life.

Caroline Richard is like all artists in search of more depth in the world. Richards, a freshman at Rockmart High, recently became passionate about sharing her artistic view of the world through her photography of landscapes, cities, nature, and extraordinary scenes made by human hands.

“I started getting really into finding these stories and symbols that is hidden around every where after I took a trip with my family to Savannah,” Richard said. “It was around eighth grade and the whole idea started after I found a young girl’s gravesite that had a statue that caught my eye.”

The statue held symbolic meaning to Richards, and she explained that to her, it represented a neverdeparting love.

She said that even after death the love from the town for the girl never died, in simpler terms: Even when life itself ceases to exist, what we carry is a love that never will perish.

Richard’s goal in life is to become a professional photographer, or at least get to use her artist eye and skill in her future job in life. Despite being an underclassman, Richard has already busy planning out her future by looking at colleges such as JSU.

To view some of Richards work check out her Instagram page @ galaxygirl_503 where she puts her photography under the title “XD pics.”

“What does XD stand for? Oh, that’s just an inside joke between my group of friends and it actually stands for nothing,” said Richard, who laughed and added. “It is literally the laughing face in text type.”