High School

Took my AfterSchoolMatters class to the Lincoln Park Zoo yesterday, and here are a few shots I took with one of the point and shoot cameras.
The weather was amazing. I've missed the sun.

Community

I've been thinking a lot about community recently. Partly because I have been writing about my Cabrini work for a review binder I'm putting together, and also because I have been working on making images of community with my ASM teens.
I am so attracted to community and people. Unfortunately my busy schedule has kept me isolated from the people I want to be around most. Hopefully that will soon change.

I have recently been reading books by Chaim Potok about the Jewish community. One in particular: The Promise. This is a book about relationships, and the psychology of people. I can't do it justice by writing a summation here. All I can say is that I was changed by this book.

Currently I'm reading: No Compromise, A Keith Green Story. This book is about the life of Keith Green. It takes the reader through his trials and journeys finding faith. I find it interesting his pull towards Jesus, and all the circumstances that led him there. His music has always touched me. He died in a plane crash at 28, and was married with 3 kids and one on the way. What I find interesting is that he was only a year older then what I am now, and seemed to have a much more fulfilling life then what I've had.

I am unhappy working so much. Perhaps I'll be happier with less jobs, less money, but more time to involve myself in a community. Why else are we here, if not to make relationships with one another?

Questions

I have 3 slight variations of one shot. The one on the left is the first one, and the two on the right have yet to be color balanced. Which one has a more interesting composition? I can't get rid of the shadow on the far left of the original, because it's from a wall.







Bill posed:

Why would anyone else care about pictures of your family? (paraphrased)

Why would they? I am interested in that change that takes place in the family dynamic after you left home and then start returning as a guest in that very home you grew up in. I am also interested in the physical change that takes place. I think that is easier to see.
Are these two separate ideas?

Statement

I've been putting off writing a statement for my new work for a while now. Partly because I will actually have to focus and make work according to that statement. I think that commitment scares me for some reason. Being out of grad school and not having the feedback on projects that I'm used to has been hard on me.

Here goes:

My childhood bedroom now stores boxes of my grandparent’s photo albums, my sister’s belongings from college, my mother’s wedding dress, and my father’s random supplies. With the exception of a few photographs hanging on a mirror and the yellow painted walls, nothing in that room reminds me of my years living there. This place that I once called home is no longer my home. My life has been in somewhat of a transition state since college. I have not considered any of the places I have resided in as home.

I am interested in the changes that have taken place since I have lived in that house. I am interested in the objects my family surrounds themselves with as well as my constantly evolving relationships with those family members.

Family Photos, Doug Dubois

His images are full of tension. The family seems unhappy and almost overwhelmed. They rarely interact with one another. Often, even though there may be more then one person in the frame, they are usually not acknowledging one another. The rare acknowledgment by one subject is almost never reciprocated by the other. I think his portraits use light nicely, but some of his candids seem static. I don't always understand how some of the interior shots fit in with the rest of the series other than the fact that they have been taken within the home environment.
The series is interesting. It has gotten me to question what kind of photographs I'm trying to make of my family.

Crit last night

Thanks to Amy, Bethany, Bill, Chris, and Nate to a wonderful crit last night! I enjoyed the viewpoints and fresh pair of eyes. I am looking forward even more now to shooting again, and making a tighter edit of the work.

It was refreshing to talk about work that is on a much higher level then Photo 1.

I'll be working on a rough artist statement and hopefully posting it sometime in the near future.

Nebraska

This is where my ancestors are buried. Folk who came from Sweden, whom I've never met and yet I feel a connection to them. We went to the farm my grandmother grew up on and it was strange to think that she set foot on that same ground many years ago. A place that I had never been to; yet was as familiar as home.