Assignment 3

Final project update

I don't have photos because I haven't been able to attain permission for either project.

Assignment 2

My idea behind shooting this project was to show what it is like to hit on girls, and to be hit on in bars.  The dance that ensues is nothing but a courting dance that is much like any other animal.  There is the approach, and attempts to impress.  The worst ending of course being total rejection.

The Omega Proposal

Proposal 2/The Omega

The objectives of this documentary project would be to document the sex workers of Tucson, how they live, how they work.  What they think of themselves.  I will shoot this with my cannon 50d and most likely obscure faces or do something to protect anonymity.  To exhibit the photos I will have 8x10s or perhaps larger prints.  The access I would be able to get would be different on a person-to-person basis.  However should I get permission I should have pretty good access to documenting bits of their lives.   I would attempt to shoot them at their studios, and at home showing the pictures near each other to show the dichotomy. 

            The parts of this project are just interviewing different people and photographing them at work and at home.  I have heard they have large sex worker get-togethers and  might see if I can’t document that. 

            I should be dealing with getting permissions this week and from there on out be interviewing and photographing my subjects over the coming months, at regular intervals set up with them.

            I feel if I do this project well I can show that sex workers aren’t people forced into the life but people who have chosen it as a profession, or at the very least give them more humanity than is afforded them in the general media.

            Budgetwise, I only see gas and interview related fees(coffee, food, etc.) really shouldn’t cost too much besides printing twenty prints.

The Alpha

Proposal 1/The Alpha

            Having been in Tucson for over three years now I regularly explore Mount Lemmon, yet I know almost nothing of the rangers and other support staff whose job it is to maintain public areas, check trails, and look for lost persons.  In this project I would contact the Coronado park rangers and ask for permission to go along with different people in their day-to-day jobs, documenting things they do and what not.  I will use my Cannon 50d and perhaps a 120mm film camera.  I will exhibit single images in each print.  My ability to do this project will be restricted by my ability to get permission to go with park services/rangers, to get this I will go to the local office and ask what I can do.  I will be able to shoot them mostly on weekends (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) because I lack the time during the week to get up the mountain shoot and make it back to classes, and most of my classes end late enough that I would be having to take a lot of night shots, which while I am willing to take I am not sure they would turn out very well as I do not have the proper equipment to actually shoot it, however if there is an opportunity to do so I will take it. 

            This project is significant because the Coronado parks area is slowly being more and more developed by different projects aimed at improving the economy of Arizona while destroying this unique environment.  This would be a study of those people who are there conserving the “sky island” from the public, for the public. 

            Step one will be to obtain permission, This will be accomplished by contacting the ranger office, by far the easiest step as email contact and phone calls can be made from anywhere at any time.  Should I be rejected I will go down to the office and plead my case.  Step two will be working out who I will be following and when since I have 3 free days I feel I can accomplish one or two “ride alongs” a week. 

            From this project I feel I will be able to capture a sense of what it is like to be a park ranger.

Funding for this will be covered from pocket, it takes half a tank of gas to go up and down Mount Lemmon, and if I am going to shoot two days in a row it is possible to camp at a free campsite on the mountain.  Also film will be a cost, but developing the film will be free as I have access to the darkroom’s film development, and I have enough left over paper that I will be able to print for “free.”

Assignment 1 Space Ships and Photos

      I chose to take pictures of situations I would miss to remind me of what awaits when I return.  I figured that for a long trip in space I would go crazy without remembering situations.  While the pictures themselves are pictures of specific events they are types of events that I enjoy the most and thus when looking at one I can think about all the other things that I will get to see again upon my return.  Most importantly these pictures are a reminder to never be bored because life is short and there are plenty of poor decisions to make still, and even more great ones.  

      Whether they be personal situations such as waking up next to someone or the almost deific feeling of watching ants, situations are the things that I will miss, because while I love my family and friends I can remember them better doing things rather than just as people I know.

Bug watching

Adventures and Bad choices

Art and Architecture

Dinner

Music

Sunsets

Perfect days

Roadtrips

Waking up to someone else

Angela singer

I’m going to start by saying Angela Singer has a love of photography that few people, even famous photographers possess.  I would not call her prolific clicking away dedication because I feel that implies she was willingly trying to take a lot of pictures.  I believe that she was really more in the mindset that she needs to take pictures and a lot of them.  This mindset differs from mine, I like to photograph things when I go out on specific photography minded walks and for projects I think of.  Something similar is that we both will rephotograph the same things over and over again as the seasons change.  We also take pictures of other people’s art.  While I like my photography to try and grasp the essence of what I am looking Angela truly gets an unnoticed look at like in a southern town.  She is able to get pictures of things that she would see everyday, and if some people noticed her taking pictures because they were so used to it they were just greeting her.  A lot of her shots are also pictures that are just documenting events in her life, common everyday events.  Combined with her telling stories about the context of the pictures it brings a more complete view of a southern town.  For instance her picture of the “Salute” they used to give when one of the boys had their birthday shows that even the elderly who tend to be more conservative in the south were once younger and did raunchy things like that, as opposed to how she may have been viewed by her grand daughter.  Few of her pictures show a technical understanding of composition, however the ones that do are truly great pictures.  This is mitigated by being able to see how she took the picture, the offhand snapshot in the morning of her mailbox to start off the day, or a shot of a random leg both of which explain their situation with little to no need for help from an outside source.  I think it is more of a constant documentary of her life and not a picture archive.  You can literally see what she did everyday and interpret maybe how her day was going.  The videos certainly show how ridiculous of a life she led, raising 6 children with a husband who would beat her.  I think the vast number of pictures that there are attest to how much we as people see, I personally am much better traveled than she is, but she has amassed tons of different pictures of essentially the same things, since she does not travel too far from her home.  This truly shows that photographers do not need to be in darkrooms all the time or editing photos or going to critiques they really just need to love the art.  One day I hope that I will be as diligent as she is enthusiastic about photography and the love of an image.