My earliest memory

Memories are something that are very intriguing. When asked what my earliest memory is, it's funny to think that I actually don't remember a whole lot from when I was little. The earliest memory for me I guess would have to be this photo that my mom took. It's a picture of me with a friend playing in a sand box, probably both of us no older than 5 or 6. We both have on these corderoy pants and polos in the middle of summer (yay 80's fashion). We have these big toothy grins facing the camera.

There is a photograph of this event. If there wasn't one I actually don't think I would remember it. I remember some things that happened here and there in the following years but it's all pretty vague. I would say for this reason is why people take photos. All of us want to remember our lives so that we can share it and pass down what we have learned with others.

Photos help us do just that. It takes a moment in time and freezes it. We may forget it but as long as that photo lays in the bottom of our dresser drawer or the picture box, the memory will always exist. Photos allow us to look at it and say we were there. Being in front of the camera we may fuss and say we don't want our picture taken, but in the long run it won't matter. Personal photos allow us to keep our memories intact and hold onto them no matter how old or forgetful we become.

Photo Essay

VS.

My photo essay project was inspired by the second exam we took for the photojournalism class. Towards the end of the video needed for the test there were all these pictures of stay at home moms and basically the June Cleaver clones. I thought to myself, that is definetly not how things are and how things have changed. I really wanted personalities to shine through on these photographs and people to realize that 50 some years ago this was not the case.

And so I set out and photographed 3 mothers that are close to me. I took pictures of my mom Linda, my aunt Beth, and my boyfriend's mom Sandy. No longer dictated by society and rules, each of them in unique in how they look and what they do.

While some of the pictures may seem similar to duties that June Cleaver used to perform, the captions I write will hopefully give insight as to what may make it a unique situation or make it very similar. Unfortunetly not all the differences could be captured by film alone. One thing to notice is the difference in clothes, no longer the blouse and huge skirt.

See the whole set at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/luckylinky/sets/72157605702791639/

Portraits

I found the portraits to be a harder project than in the past. Not so much the subject of the photos, but trying to tell people to do different things or be themselves. The person I ended up picking for someone I know was my boyfriend. The other was a girl at a bar I was at who was playing pool. I'm naturally shy to begin with so that made the project worse, however college age student as well as being at a bar, buying someone a drink is an easy ice-breaker.


This is one of the final 4 for my boyfriend. It was difficult getting a good picture I think because I knew him. He was self-conscious about how he looked and how the picture would turn out. You can tell a lot about a person from a picture. I ended up linking this one in my blog because most of the others he smiles in and so I thought it was a nice change. He's a energetic person and most of the time with a smile on his face. So while I think you can tell what a person is like from a photo, you definetly need more than one picture to understand the scope of someone's real personality.



And this is Jenn, a girl that was at the bar. She was there for a work party after a volleyball game. While it was difficult to work up the courage to ask to take pictures, being in a social setting helped. Most pictures are very natural that I picked for her, although I did ask her to do an "artsy" picture and I think it turned out great. In some ways it was also easier to work with someone I didn't know because they were not as self-conscious. From what I did learn of her, I think it shines through in the pictures. She was energetic, active, social, fun, and also interesting.

Check out the rest of my set at :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/luckylinky/sets/72157605572587574/

Documentation Complete!

My original idea was to go out and capture emotion. When I was researching what it meant for pictures to be a document, it seemed to be that it meant proof that this event happened or is marked in history.

Emotions are something everyone feels on a daily basis and we can all understand as human beings. Emotions are universal are for that reason I thought it would be a great subject to build off of. I had started the process hoping to find 2 people to embody emotions that I could capture emotions through a conversation. I had trouble coming up with a second person so I actually ended up becoming part of my own project. I ended up carrying my camera around all day while my friend and I walked around Chicago. I snapped pictures here and there and we had some drinks along the way. This moment in time came when we needed to sit down for a break. I was able to capture the pictures by setting the camera down and putting it on a timer.

While this isn't exactly the emotion I wanted to capture, I wanted something much more serious, these turned out to be good examples. Through the cycle of the 6 pictures you can recognize happiness, being silly, concern, companionship, and someone who is just a little drunk. Initially I was going to delete these pictures because they were slightly blurry. However I actually learned to enjoy that aspect of the pictures. It helped to create a sense of action and movement in the frames, and maybe some of the alcohol as well.

I was actually editing these photos to appear in black and white but stopped because I really enjoyed some of the vivid colors like the reds and part of the movement was lost in removing the color as well.

I think these photos can describe the ignorance of youth, how sometimes youth can make idiots of ourselves. However as we grow older, there are lessons we pick up on the way. In these pictures I would be the idiot youth making mistakes and living life, while my friend is the mature adult who has "been there, done that." These photos are the process of life.

Documentation Project

From what I was reading this project had one common theme I came across. Proof of existence in one form or another. As people we experience many things and that is exactly what drove me to my project idea. We experience emotions, whether we want to or not we go through them. I think I will be able to create a variety of settings and locations to create a good set of photos that will hopefully be recognizeable as emotions.

Other ideas that I was playing around with was something to do with animals and then the other being something with water. Water is an essential part of every life, it comes in many forms and is a beneficial for the most part. Even though humanity needs it we use it as a dump, poisoning and polluting the very thing that helps us to survive. I'm really in a toss-up between emotions and the water idea, but I believe I will end up doing emotions.

Light and the composition of a photo

Hi all,

I would have to say that my favorite time of day to shoot these photos was at night. Though I only had a chance to experiment with early morning/sunrise light and full-on darkness. I enjoyed the night time photo shoots more because I as able to create a much more dramatic photograph. The drama allowed me to capture the bright lights that were shining, but also get the gloomy darkness that surrounded those lights.

I would like to think that another great time to capture these images would have been around sunset. I think the last glimpse of light from the sun would make for intriguing pictures and the way it creates shadows and distorts them would really make for an interesting piece.

Here's a link to what I believe is the best photo I took:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/luckylinky/2534012640/

You can see the final five that I had to choose from by going to my Flickr page:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/luckylinky/

Good luck all, back to enjoying the Florida weather for me!