In focus: College Photographer of the Year winner

If you're ever walking around the 40-acres you may encounter junior Plan II major Manoo Sirivelu with a camera around his neck working on his latest personal project  or class assignment. Before starting photojournalism through The Daily Texan, Sirivelu was a math major, but he is now using his camera to capture himself a lasting legacy at the university.

In fact, Sirivelu recently won gold in College Photographer of the Year’s ‘International Picture Story’ category for a photo series he completed while studying abroad in Ireland during the spring 2024 Maymester.

The award-winning story, "Home Is Where You Moor It", started out as an assignment for Sirivelu's Documentary Photography Storytelling class, where he was instructed to cover a social justice issue in Ireland.

"The topic I wanted to cover was housing, ands o I found out about this amazing group of people that were living on the house boats," Sirivelu said. "I spent a lot of time with them, hanging out, going on boat adventures, seeing their community... and was able to document some small part of their daily lives."

Sirivelu said he first encountered housing boats while in South India, where he completed middle school and high school. This connection eventually helped spark his interest in documenting the alternative housing method while in Ireland, where an unstable market and a lack of affordable homes has led to unprecedentedly high rent. Now, more and more residents are turning to the waterways for a cheaper way to live.

“Housing in general and alternative housing is a topic that interests me a lot,” Sirivelu said. “In Ireland, it's so bad that people are coming to Austin."

Back on campus, Manoo spent the fall 2024 semester as the lead editor for The Daily Texan, capturing the best moments at fall football games and other campus events for the publication.

"The Daily Texas is the first thing in my entire life probably that I was stuck to for over a year." Sirivelu said. "I think our ACL coverage was probably one of my favorite things that I've done this year because I was able to take over the Texan stories… and add a lot of design elements to it.”

Now, classes like ‘Expanded Documentary’ with Professor Donna DeCesare keep him plenty busy while also helping him expand his portfolio and photojournalism perspective. In fact, he has started a new photo series examining some of the traditional ideas of masculinity from an alternative lens.

“I think it's important for all of us to confront our notions of masculinity. I want to look at that and try to represent the ideals of masculinity that have been imposed on me through my life,” Sirivelu said.

At the end of the semester, Manoo will be returning to Ireland to continue his coverage on housing, as well as serve as an undergraduate assistant for the class that led to the creation of the project in the first place.

“I think the photos that I took were powerful… They started a narrative, but personally, I was so new to journalism and photojournalism specifically, there was a lot I missed that I’m now aware of.” Sirivelu said. “I want there to be a story behind this and not just be a photo piece.”

See Sirivelu’s full portfolio here: https://msirivelu.squarespace.com