Congratulations to graduates everywhere.

Our friend, photojournalist Mikki Ansin based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, shared these breathtaking images that she captured the evening before last week’s Harvard University graduation ceremonies:

I was just taking a shortcut through Harvard Yard on the way home after an early party. It was so beautiful... the end of a long day with a deep blue night sky, dark towards the ground so it was a bit eerie. I've always seen those seats so alive with people and excitement. It was if they were resting up for what the next day (graduation) would bring...

Graduations are celebratory, for sure, but Mikki’s photographic sense of anticipation, solemnity, and profundity of the coming event was right on the money. Weighty words soon would wash over the graduating students who would occupy these seats.

U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics, addressed the audience of brilliant young minds likely to play a major role in shaping the future of our world. He delivered a sobering Veritas about the global climate crisis and a call to action to get involved and make a difference. And then this message of hope, a quote from William Faulkner:

“I believe that Man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. The poet's, the writer's, duty is to write about these things. It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past.”

For Secretary Chu’s entire commencement address, go here. It's worth taking a few minutes to read.

These photos and Kolo projects appear on Ugo's Flickr page here.

For more of Mikki Ansin's photography, go here. It's worth taking a few minutes to look.