PHOTOGRAPHY AND WORDS VALHERIA ROCHA
Young photographer Valheria Rocha continues to mesmerize us with her captivating photography and candid portrait of youth culture in Atlanta, Georgia. In the second part of her visual diary "From Atlanta With Love" the Colombian-born creative introduce us to more of her beautiful friends, ones who make the youth scene in Atlanta so diverse and attractive. Rocha captures the bright colors of the city creating a lovely composition of youthfulness, love, and freedom.
This is my friend Rachel, we met at work and then just became good friends. She’s also a model and an actress, catch her in an upcoming movie with Hugh Jackman (not sure if I can say the name so….)!!! Rachel and I went to this cool nature park 40 min out of Atlanta called Arabia Mountain. The landscape there is unreal. On one side, it's like being on Mars. The mountain is raid and marble and barren, then on the other side there are a bunch of tiny oases (like little pods of water and growing life) and this is Rachel basking in the beautiful sunset light in one of the oases!
These are my friends Zoe and Justis. I just met her recently because of a mutual friend and it turns out she knows one of my best friends from my childhood. See, small world! We’ve been meaning to hang out and so we hit up a pet shop because I’m in the market for a goldfish. Then we went to Goodwill because it was raining and rainy days are the best days to thrift shop. Zoe didn’t find anything, I found a dope sweater and Justis came out with that cool Hawaiian-esque shirt?
A few weeks later we met up to go to my favorite restaurant in Atlanta that I promised Zoe I’d take her to, and Justis wore the famous Goodwill shirt (LOL). This restaurant is a little hole in the wall, Latinx restaurant with a mixture of Mexican, Colombian, and Cuban cultures. The food is amazing and super authentic tasting (seriously taste’s just like my Mum’s food at home) (oh yeah, we are Colombian. Did people already know that about me?). Also, the decor is just so fun and colorful and I always feel like I’m at one of my family reunions with the loud Salsa music playing in the background.
This is one of my good friends, Brandon. He just always dresses this cool for no reason at all other than he’s a fashion I C O N. He probably thrifted that shirt and made those shirts. This was taken when we were hanging out after a meeting we had in Downtown Atlanta for an upcoming project he’s helping me with. Check out his Insta, he’s so talented.
This is my friend Ryan aka ryanlikesdogs. We also met on Instagram. Here we were exploring this cute neighborhood I’m scouting for future photoshoots. He’s serving you “Not Your Average Paperboy” and “Boy Next Door with a Touch of Miley” looks. He made that jacket himself. amazing.
[Check out Ryan on Instagram: @ryanlikesdogs]
Grace is one of my biggest supporters and a really amazing friend. Another beautiful soul who I love to photograph because she exudes grace and class and beauty and we always have a super fun time. I like to invite my friends to hang out at my house and we plan little mini shoots, so these are from one of those shoots. I call them my bedroom sessions, they’re part of a larger, ongoing body of work I haven’t quite named yet. Anyways, Grace is perfect and she’s gonna be mega-famous one day, so also go check her out.
[Check out Grace on Instagram: @shetoograceful]
This restaurant is an Atlanta landmark. It’s old as hell and the food is your average, greasy, All-American classics such as hamburgers, hot dogs, fries, and milkshakes. I’m not a huge fan but if I say that out loud around here, someone might punch me. It’s HOLY around these parts. My friend Erin and I went to get milkshakes because honestly, milkshakes are always good.
That’s one of my favorite buildings in Atlanta. My best friend actually just got a job there! It’s a pretty big deal.
Another night of hanging with Erin and her precious puppy, Eyeball. Eyeball is basically the Paris Hilton of dogs. She has a tiny chain mail scarf in honor of the iconic chain-mail dress, Paris wore in 2000. Also, these images look like a Lana Del Rey music video and that makes me wanna cry tears of happiness.
[Check out Erin and Eyeball on Instagram: @erinmaloney & @eyeballtheloaf]
