New Work, New Image

Not yet titled.  This new image is part of a new body of work.
I am interested in the educational system.  I am still narrowing down my thoughts about what I am truly interested in showing.

Education in the United States has become a business transaction which in many cases educates students to become educators and creates a never-ending cycle of mass amounts of educators and minimal jobs.  This results in adjuncts (and those jobs are now becoming hard to get).  Adjuncts are the minimum wage earners of the education world.  They have little respect, cannot fully invest in one school (since most of the time they are teaching at 4 or 5 schools) and burn out really easy.  Thanks to Obamacare, they can now only teach a maximum amount of classes per school.  Now they have to spread themselves even thinner in order to make enough money to survive (which does not include anything for retirement). This is not a sustainable lifestyle. Administration on the other hand continues to increase its' earnings so that depending on what position they hold they can potentially earn close to the high end of six figures.

This is a huge problem and it needs to change.

When someone like myself is forced to work a minimum wage job after obtaining a Master's Degree because of the backwardness of the educational institution there is a problem.

I did not pursue a MFA to work at Starbucks until I am 80 years old.  I (among many of my colleagues) am creative, intelligent and resourceful. We should be able to obtain employment in higher education and do what we aim to do: create change, thoughtfulness and a dialogue between students.

The image above of which I have not yet titled is a photograph of my previous body of work with a letter from my current institution transitioning my job from full-time to part-time after only being employed there for just over two years. This is a problem.  Not only for me, but for the students who are taking classes in a program with expectations to succeed, and are being hindered because my 40 hours a week availability is now only 25 hours.

I am at the beginning of this work.  And there is still so much more I need to think about.  Feedback, suggestions or general comments are welcomed.

Portrait of my Father

End of summer light, new image..

New image...thoughts?

To dark? Interesting?

Current Sequence

sequence part 2....

I like the sequence of my sister, and the sequence of me being laid off. It's everything about I'm having trouble with. It was brought to my attention that I have multiple ideas going on in the series, and I'm thinking it would be good to make 'chapters' dealing with these different ideas. Of course there are holes, but here's what I have so far... The first two lines are images dealing with the home the way it is, and the quarkiness. The next line deals with my father and the repairs to the home The following has to do with the idea of being old, and a history that is perserved (might be two different ideas) After that I have included a variety of images of my parents. I'm not sure what I'm saying about them. Then come the sequence of my sister and her relationship with my mom before, during, and after she was in graduate school. Finally is the sequence of me turning 30 and loosing my job. There's a gap in before the last two images, and I know something needs to go there, I'm just not sure what. Thoughts?

sequence

I'm trying to figure out a sequence of the work, but am running into several problems. The first, is that I'm not entirely sure what I'm saying (especially about the relationships), and the second is that I'm not sure where it's going. The latter is less significant to me now, but still factors into the sequence. Here are some minor changes to what's on the website... I'll keep working on figuring out edits, and adding new images. If anyone out there wants to comment, I'd love the feedback. I'm not sure how the last two images fit, I see the leaning chairs as an image near the end. Still more to come...

Bone on bone

My mother has been in pain for the last two years. She could barely walk without being in pain. She finally went to the doctor, and found out that they was no cartiledge in one of her hip bones. It was just bone on bone. She needed hip surgery. She had the surgery on Feb. 18th, 2013. It took three weeks, a combination of staying at the hospital as well as a short term resident physical therapy facility, before she could come home. She finally came home. Both my sister and father were able to take over the daily chores while she was gone and even after she came home. Just a few days ago the doctor said she didn't have to wear the brace anymore. In a few weeks she will be able to ditch the walker and just use a cane. All of this got me thinking about what life would be like for me if my mother wasn't there. She's my rock here on earth. My mother after hip surgery, 2013

In homage to Larry Sultan

In homage to Larry Sultan. An image of me after hearing I was being laid off. Still in progress as far as color balancing goes. Does it work?

My mother's wedding dress

An image from the end of last year...I finally managed to scan it. Still haven't color balanced it first. I have been dilegently working on my website. Still many fixes to make on it, but it's progressing nicely. I am also working on a better sequence to my Was Once Home series. I had two professional reviews at SPE last weekend, and the biggest criticism was that I need a better sequence so that the viewer understands fully what I'm trying to say. I agree with this. I think up until this point I've been just making images of things I see, or am thinking about individually. Now, I need to really focus on the project as a whole and see what can come of it. Being laid off from my teaching position can really take this project in a different direction. We will see where that goes. My mother's wedding dress in my childhood room, 2012 copyright Sarah Baranski

Japan

Ive been watching the news and looking at images/video footage of the tragedy in Japan for the past few days. I am so far removed from this situation. I don't know what an earthquake feels like; as I've never gone through one knowingly. I also don't know what it's like to see my loved ones and possessions swallowed up by the sea. The words 'Nuclear Meltdown' mean absolutely nothing to me. Yet there are millions(?) of people right now dealing with these issues and more.

I am considering making a class assignment which will asks students to respond to this tragedy. As removed as we are, we should still be thinking about what is going outside of ourselves.

This image really struck me:



I often think about the function of photography in my life. Family photo albums are a large part of that function. This image describes the current devastation which most families in Japan must be going through.

Relaxation

I'm finding relaxation a rare occurrence these days.
I've been thinking a lot about prayer and relationships.

I need to keep making images, even if they aren't for anything but this blog. It's important to keep making images, or I won't feel like myself.

If I was a dancer....

A new series I'm doing in b/w. This is a first image...hopefully they'll get to where I envision them soon.

If I was a dancer....

A new series I'm doing in b/w. This is a first image...hopefully they'll get to where I envision them soon.

Dad with Tomatoes

And he's smiling.

New Image

Trying to change things up by shooting something I've never shot for this project before; in the rain, near dusk, and with movement. Not sure if it fits.

My sister

My sister is now living in Oregon. This is slightly inconvenient when I'm working on making images that talk about my family, and she's not here. So, I had an idea on how to keep including her, as well as talk about her absence. This is just a digital image of my idea. The light wasn't right at the time, so I didn't want to waste film. Thoughts?

What is this all about?

I have been endlessly thinking about my project: Was Once Home.

What is it about?

Thoughts that were purposed to me from a colleague:

:I am not sure who the characters are, and what their relationship to you and each other is.

:Don't be too ambiguous. Some images are not informative enough.

:The best familiar photo projects often thrive on our voyeuristic tendency to really want to know how other people live. We sort of bounce our own persona off the others, to either compare or reflect or to gain confidence that we're above (ie. our fascinations with celebrities).

What am I interested in with this project? There are a few things, but I know I need to narrow it further. For now, here are where my interests lie.

:My displacement; not having a home of my own.

:The need to explore the setup and changes of my parents house, and how the space I inhabit begins to mimic my parent's home.

:The people who inhabit the space. Their relationships with each other and myself.

:The subtle history the home holds.



Can these all come together in one narrow idea? Do I need to leave some of these thoughts out? Which is the most interesting to someone whom is not familiar with my family?

Renovating

Still working on this image. Can't seem to get the colors right, especially at the top.

An image of my dad's progress stripping the last of the carpet that came with the house when they bought it. He gave me a square of it. I loved this carpet!

Mother's day and Web Posting

Here are a few images from mother's day



My sister and my mother.



Self portrait #3 in this body of work.



http://www.photoreview.org/competition/portfolio.php/23/2

This is the 2009 competition that just was posted with one of my images!

On site

http://www.photoreview.org/competition/portfolio.php/23/2

This is the 2009 competition that just was posted with one of my images!