I’m officially done with my photography class at school. And its summertime!
On one of the last days of school, I rode around on my bike snapping photos as a way to say goodbye. I came upon an old abandoned house/barn and thought it was appropriate to take some photos of it. I like how they turned out!
I have gone through multiple ideas for this project. Originally, I intended to shoot the drag queens that came to campus. I soon realized my constraints and the impracticality of this project, so I shifted gears to something more attainable. I decided that I was interested in showing the gab between the community of Beloit and the Campus of Beloit. I planned to do this by photographing the more “labor” oriented workers at school and then following them into the other parts of their lives. I then realized that the time constraints, I would not be able to fully develop any kind of rapport with the people that I was photographing.
I soon switched total gears, and became interested when I saw the work of Gillian Wearing. I was intrigued by her study of “the self” and thought about studying my own self. I decided that something that is important to me are all of my technological devices. My plan is to portray my dependancy on them with a series of images where my face becomes a mosaic of my separate facial features. In addition, I want to show that the more engrossed we are in our technology, the less human we become. I plan to do this with a progression of photos, the first one being a photo of myself and the last one being a photo of my computer, camera, phone, and ipod all displaying my different facial features, which in turn, compose my whole face.
For my final photography project, I was influenced by Gillian Wearing. She did a reflexive study of herself with multiple self portraits. She focused on understanding genetic connections with her immediate and relative family. In each self portrait, she transformed herself into her one of her family members. She did this by using masks, makeup, and models. It is incredibly difficult to tell that every single one of her shots is actually her!
Like Wearing, I am interested in a study of myself and the connectedness I have to not family, but technological tools such as cell phones, ipods, and cameras. I am influenced by her study of “the self” and plan to do a study of myself in this last portrait project. The manner of which I go about the study will be very different than that of Wearing, but the idea of exploring one’s self is a parallel between my photos and Wearing’s photos.
Adams began shooting in the 1970’s in the Appalachia Region. He is simply trying to convey the culture of the region in his photographs. He states, “My opportunity is to make photographs from an insider’s perspective with real, established relationships. Trained as a fine arts photographer, I have no political or social bias to entertain, choosing instead to diligently and openly explore my roots, family, people and myself” (All of Us). Adams claims that he does this by creating close relationships with his subjects. He thinks that because he was a native of the area, he was much more warmly accepted by his subjects.
I question his subject choice, especially in the selected photographs. He says that he has no social or political bias, but “the marginalized” as a subject are a recurrent theme in his pictures. I think of the photographer, Diane Arbus when I look at these photos. There are a few parallels: black and white, centered portraits, and the marginalized. Adams is photographing the “different” ones. His motives are the things that I question and I wonder if he is simply shooting subjects who he knows will generate the most reaction.
Critique for our fourth project went well. Because of the organization of my photos for presentation, the message that I was trying to send was clear. The class quickly picked up on my themes of consumption and excessive waste. in general, the class saw how I traced the food that we waste at commons. That idea of the trace was fairly straight forward. The class did not however pick up on the fact that I was documenting the traces that people leave behind and that my camera served as the eyes to see where their food ends up.
There were some great suggestions from the class with how to improve my project and with how to capture the trace in a more interesting way. One thing that I would consider doing would be to capture the same trace in two very different ways. For example, for Stage One, I would photograph one attractive plate of food and then one plate of food that is clearly waste. Juxtaposing this with a shot of the dirty landfill would make for an interesting contrast. Also, with Stage Two, I would consider shooting the dumping station from the perspective of the people dumping the food. This might give the viewer some additional information and would add more to the series as a whole.
For this project, I am interested in taking a more environmental approach. As the project was described to the class, I began to imagine the traces that every human being unknowingly leaves behind. I then started looking at Julian Montague’s photos of shopping carts found in the natural environment. These inspired to focus on consumption and realized that the best way to do that was to focus on food and how it is treated at Beloit.
The idea of “the trace” will be seen in two different ways in my series of photographs. I will be documenting, through my photographs, all of the food that people leave behind. I will be documenting the traces that they obliviously leave behind. In addition, I will be following the various stages that the unwanted food goes through. I will be documenting the food once the consumer decides that they no longer want it and follow it to its end.
My goal is to help the students of Beloit understand the impact their waste has on the environment. I believe that most people stop thinking about their food and what happens to it once they’ve decided that they are done eating it. We are all very concerned about food preparation and how food is obtained/made, but not enough people think about what happens to the food when they decide to be done with it. At Beloit College, it, for the most part, ends up being shipped off to an enormous landfill. I want to spread awareness about this, and hope that my photos are effective.
I am attracted to Montague’s decision to shoot abandoned shopping carts. Who cares about an old abandoned shopping cart? Not many people do. Montague compiles hundreds of abandoned shopping carts into a database. He classifies each one and in doing so, makes each one matter.
I like the selection above for a variety of reasons. I think that Specimen 3, 169, and 178 all demonstrate the abandoned shopping cart and an impact that it has on a somewhat natural environment. I believe that this speaks to human consumption. The shopping cart represents consumerism; The shopping cart holds all of the “things” that we go to a store and buy. Montague has then gone out and found these vessels for “product” in a natural environment. I like the harsh juxtaposition that is created as well as the environmental message that is sent to the viewer.
With Specimens 4, 185, and 197, I like how the shopping carts are in a way, being used as they are meant to be. With these specimens, the shopping carts are full of “stuff”. These images make me think of packaging, consumption, and the unneeded items that Americans buy every single day without giving it a second thought.
I am inspired, for the next project, to try and trace one form of consumerism and its affect on the environment.
Critique went well yesterday. Typically, we present our photos by printing them, arranging them, and posting them in front of the class. It was very different to present them online and through a projector for a few reasons. We could not arrange them as a series and the tones through the projector appeared very different than the original tones. These two things did take away from the presentation. However, I think that my pictures resonated with the group despite the inhibitions of technology.
For the next project, I will strive to tie my photos together better. Because each of our projects are dependent on a series of photos, it is important that there is some sense of continuity throughout. In terms of tying my photos together, I did better in this project than the previous two projects. I utilized color to tie my photos together, and I hope that I can try to think of other ways to bring my photos together as a series for the next project.
