Potential

In terms of my final project, I think I'd like to experiment with various expansions: working with a wider age group, maybe get some of my parents' or grandparents' stories, or a young kid's, maybe giving a more complete portrayal of subjects (actually covering all 13 scars on one friend for instance--I myself would probably provide a plethora of stories). I definitely enjoy this sort of macro-portraiture and would like to do more. (I don't know if that exists or if I just made up that term.) The relationship between portraiture and personal narrative is also something I've enjoyed exploring, and I feel requires further investigation in the future when I have the opportunity to do so.
I remember I found the article we read on smiling in portraiture intriguing. It definitely makes me want to examine my portraiture folder in that light, and is something I believe I will continue to at least think about while taking portraits in the future.

Final: Close EncountersObservations on Personal Encounters with Subjects

In some cases, I actually learned some new stories about my subjects and friends, while some I specifically asked to photograph because I already had an idea of some of their personal narratives that would be appropriate for this piece. I also knew beforehand that I wanted to photograph people I was more familiar with because of the potentially invasive nature of the project.
I got the impression from the photo shoots for this project that it was at least somewhat awkward, but I actually think in most cases the audio capture was more awkward than actually shooting photographs for them. I ended up wandering away from them after I'd given direction so that they could take their time to figure out what they wanted to say and give themselves multiple takes if they needed. In general I was regarded as the director. One ended up playing around with the audio capture quite a bit before jumping into explanations; another needed a good five or ten minutes to collect thoughts before recording audio. (I had them record themselves so they could take their time or start over or say as much as they wished.) This wasn't a problem per se, but it was intriguing since I was approaching it from a desire to capture things more so than arrange them to my particular liking. (I felt I already was arranging quite a bit of the experience of this piece in framing them in an interactive web format.) I didn't want to instruct or direct them too strictly from a desire of the portrayal through their portraits to have some kind of personal truth in them, or at least to feel like I was representing them honestly in their essence. (That leaves open the issue of self-portrayal, and the truth one creates of oneself in telling one's own stories, but that is another lengthy topic...)
I think some of the awkwardness, even though it wasn't terribly so, likely came from the focus of the piece itself. Regardless of how self-conscious one is about one's body or how camera shy a person might be, physical oddities, flaws, or scars--and if not that, the stories or associations--tend to be personal and often private matters.
I felt the way in which the subjects of the portraits told their stories was vital in their portrayal (mine and theirs combined.) I hadn't quite expected it, but many of the stories included in the piece were actually humorous on some level, or at least the subjects seemed to look back on the experiences, even if they were bad, with some kind of fondness and good humor. In that way, their voices and their tones while speaking brought so much to the piece, that I would argue is utterly indispensable, and gave greater insight on the subject when composed spatially and temporally with the visual references.

Final: Obstacles and Response, Technical and Artistic Concerns

Some issues needing to be addressed became apparent fairly early on in the website design. I realized I might need more pictures of individual body parts or areas, especially if the audio going along with the images was of any significant length, which brought up the challenge in some cases of how many different ways can I photograph particular things.
As is nearly always an issue when using image maps, I had to think about whether the audience could intuitively navigate through the site's maps or whether more direction was needed. I think to a degree navigating image maps is intuitive to most computer-users, but to be safe I included both the mouseover caption/titles and indicated in my introduction of the piece that investigation, finding the links, would be required to explore and navigate the portraits. I considered looking for a code which highlights image map areas when you mouseover them, but most I found were more suited to image maps of actual maps of continents with individual countries and such. I thought this effect would be too jarring with the organic shapes of the body.
I also had issue obtaining a better quality microphone for audio capturing. In the end, I decided it would be easier for me to use my laptop's microphone and edit the audio to the best of my ability rather than try to call in my subjects for multiple sittings. I was aware of the awkwardness of doing the photo shoot and the audio captures for me, so I tried to gather all the material from each person in a single meeting with them.
I wished to use essentially a slideshow for the photography that went with the audio, and while I originally started out using simple jQuery fade ins and outs, it became apparent working that script for multiple consecutive photographs would be too much of a hassle. I eventually found a fairly simple Javascript which allowed me to easily create simple slideshows, altering the timing as necessary. As timing was also an issue, I encouraged my subjects to keep their audio captures brief (I believe the longest is two minutes, for which I had to take more images), and generally took more photos than necessary so I had sufficient material to work with the timing of the audio tracks.
I also encountered some more editorial concerns, particularly with regards to what parts of my subjects' narratives I showed. In the case of one of my subjects who had an overabundance of scars in particular, I worked with a sampling of those rather than capturing them all. In some cases, the scars were very difficult to see, and I felt just shooting the general area with the physical evidence of the story so faint wasn't appropriate where simply a story generally concerning a body area or part might have been. I was aware of how this would alter the truth of the personal narratives, which is partly why I was so keen on the subjects coming up with what to say on their own. I knew I was playing a major role in portraying them (although most seemed to expect as much from me as the photographer).
Something I might have worked on more besides gathering a more complete narrative from subjects and find subjects from a wider range of ages, was on experimenting more with composition and lighting with the close-up shots. Certain areas were very challenging for finding different views or perspectives.

Final Project synopsis

Memoirs Through Anatomy

With this project, I wanted to work with portraiture in a way I haven't really investigated before, focusing on the idea that people tend to wear or carry their histories or parts of themselves around with them on or in their bodies. In that way, I think it is perhaps a spin-off of the environmental portrait, in which the environment is actually the physical person themselves as opposed to their surroundings. Or perhaps one can think of it as the marks and impressions left on the body by their surroundings throughout the lifetime.
I also wanted to create an interactive experience with it; I believe that idea came from the metaphor I had in my mind of the landmarks or lanscape of the body or the body as a roadmap through one's personal history. As such, the portraits actually consist of several photographs, an "overall" view (the roadmap, if you will, which doubly serves as the image map and navigation on the site), a number of more close-up, intimate views (portraits of parts of the whole), and the spoken narrative provided by the subject him/herself in the audio.

Environmental Portraits

~~
I think normally one would expect the environmental portrait with the less familiar person to be more of an awkward situation. I'm not sure that was the case with my set of environmental portraits. I think I felt about equally awkward with both subjects. While Dr. Krueger is one of my professors this semester, I'd never actually spoken to him individually (nor had I read up on all of his accomplishments in his field) previously. Shooting him involved slight awkwardness; for some reason I feel compelled to converse with my subjects while shooting portraits, either for their comfort or my own. In terms of the portrait itself, his office was the perfect environment, from just about any angle.
Photographing my friend Holly involved a different nervousness. I think I had more concern for how I was portraying her because of our familiarity. When I might have expected more eye contact in photos with the person more familiar to me, the reverse was true here. Dr. Krueger had a tendency to meet the camera with his eyes though I hadn't asked him to do so or not.
The environment in Dr. Krueger's portraits also showed more his profession and fields of study, whereas I feel Holly's reflected more so her personality as well as her interests. There was a kind of quiet elusive quality to her photographs, especially when I decided to focus on the bookshelf items in the foreground rather than her directly.
In terms of captioning, Dr. Krueger's ended up being more lengthy because of his accomplishments, and because I felt the items in his office needed identification for the audience to understand their significance. Holly's portraits I felt stood on their own better in this way, and relied more visually on communicating the portrait information rather than on the text.

Context and Decontextualization: Thoughts on "Thinking Images v.10: Jodi Bieber's Afghan girl portrait in context"

Jodi Bieber (whom I have never met) was  interviewed after my lecture and remarked: “What Campbell said about our lack of control was quite obvious and very true. As soon as you hand over your work its not yours anymore.” This means when Bieber’s portrait of Aisha appeared on the 9 August 2010 cover of Time, with the headline “What Happens if We Leave Afghanistan,” its form was beyond her control (see below left). At the moment it entered the public domain the image was no longer Bieber’s. #

#

Focusing on the headline, Jim Johnson calls the Time cover propaganda and the World Press Photo award a category mistake. He provides an effective demonstration of how meaning is changed by associated text with an imaginary cover using the same photo with the headline “What Still Happened Despite Ten Years of Occupying Afghanistan” (above right). #

~ Thinking Images v.10: Jodi Bieber's Afghan girl portrait in context

It's an unfortunate truth in photojournalism that once your photograph is sold, you give up control over the manner in which your photograph is displayed and contextualized. As for the World Press Photo award, I think it is possible to look at photographs in isolation and judge them formally--it's just a matter of choosing a narrower analytical view--but depending on the photo, it may or may not strip the image of its potential full meaning or impact. Artworks can and are usually examined, analyzed, and valued through different aspects and fields of study, but in my experience the holistic view is the generally preferred one. Practically, no photograph can be fully appreciated for what it is out of the context in which it was taken, but some may be more closely tied or dependent on context than others, and therefore more susceptible to contextual corruption (such as the above example). Examining a photograph from a purely formal standpoint is quite possible, and is done, but it must be understood that doing so risks at least some de-contextualization. Perhaps formal elements and historical/social/political context could both be taken into account in the World Press Photo award, but once this context is recognized, it is likely that certain photos will be judged based on the significance of their context rather than on design and composition.

Tam Tam Mandingue Winston-Salem

Assignment 2: A Groovy Niche

In the hushed Sunday evening ambiance of downtown Winston-Salem, the Golden Flower Tai Chi Center seems a tranquil nook.
Inside, it's rumbling with vitality and spirit.

Associate professor Robin Bountourabi Leftwich acquaints me better with Tam Tam Mandingue Winston-Salem (TTMWS) at the cozy tea bar occupying a front corner of the center.

Robin began drumming at a very young age, and started learning the djembe in her teens. "I was born to do it," she says matter-of-factly, explaining her goal was always to become a better drummer. She never thought she would end up teaching, though it seems she grew into the role quite naturally.

In the course of her studies Robin has also learned how to build and repair djembe. Traditionally made from goat or cow skin, Robin uses alternative materials to head djembes for vegans like Carol, the professor leading the drumming workshop I came to observe.

A bell anklet serves as a metronome for Carol while she watches her students picking up some basic rhythms.

There are many reasons this West African drumming is appealing: all kinds of people from all kinds of backgrounds find it meditative, relaxing, and good for stress relief.

I overhear one experienced student's advice to a new drummer: "When you start thinking, just stop."

What attracts people the most, though, Robin says, is the sense of community fostered in the drumming classes and circles.

The djembe has always been an instrument of gathering and community; its rhythms function historically as a part of society. As Carol explains to her students, each rhythm has a corresponding circumstance, such as the naming of a child or an agricultural event: "It's almost like a story in music."

Here there are no performers nor an audience, no separation between the two. Everyone is a participant, interactive and interconnected.

Bill Scheidt, the director at TTMWS as well as a student of the famous djembe drummer and TTM founder Mamady Keïta, arrives to lead a more advanced circle of drummers.
I decide to stick around a little longer to watch.

Even serving as the rare (I suspect) non-drumming observer, it is nigh impossible to not be swept into the whirlwind of intertwined rhythms and beats.

The drummers themselves seem swept up in their musical conversation, speaking vociferously with both hands and understanding smiles.

The glorious, tumultuous din shakes my very bones, quite literally, as I feel, watch, listen to the drumming conjurers groove and percuss up their rhythmic storm.

I can't help dancing a little too on the way out, returning to that deceptively serene urban night.

*Thanks to Peter Sangimino, Bill Scheidt, Robin, Carol, and everyone who allowed me to vulture around the djembe classes for a few hours. =)

Assignment 1 Images Overview

An overview of the more successful photos I took for this first assignment.

Some black/whites from the last set

Assignment 1: Final Reflections

I think for the most part the narratives suggested in Assignment 1 match the narratives of the subjects. I am not certain my captions represent absolute truth about the narratives of the subjects--in some cases I know I emphasized certain aspects of the narrative I perceived. Perhaps the man and the boy playing basketball were just having fun, and weren't really practicing for something in particular. In the case of the second photo, I could point out the presence of a person out-of-frame, which gave that particular narrative a little more to go on than just the couple's charming and somewhat shy reaction to my presence as the photographer. I took an educated guess in one of the pictures where I was trying to be inconspicuous: I do not know if the little girl in the third picture is resting with family or friends. I also made the little girl the main subject of that photograph, whereas I could probably have made the two young women deep in some important conversation talking by the fountain the subject. The narrative of the last three I can say was depicted in a straight-forward manner--it was also the group of people with whom I had the most interaction and can remember the most detail about their meeting as I photographed them.
I think in the end, the difference between photojournalism and snapshot photography derives from the importance of the relationship between the subject and photographer. It seems to me as though in snapshot photography, the subjects themselves impose their own meaning on a scene, or perhaps the situation/environment does so for them, because of the presence of a camera. (The meanings in these cases also seem to be relatively superficial, if we go with the stereotype, or perhaps only accessible to those who personally know the subjects.) In photojournalism, the photographer can impose his own meaning on the scene, or perhaps represent it truly faithfully to its original context, but those decisions will be heavily influenced by the relationship the photographer has to the subjects, rather than the camera, per se.

Assignment 1: Images and Captions

After training at a Lake Daniel Greenway basketball court for half an hour
in the wintry chill of a Sunday evening, the boy's mentor checks his pupil's
hook shot technique.

A young couple joke around with a friend in downtown Greensboro,
near the entrance of a restaurant which has not yet opened
for its Saturday evening clientele.

A young girl seeks respite with her family after a brief playtime in Greensboro's Center City Park on a Saturday afternoon.
~~~

A group of college students spend a Sunday afternoon discussing ideas
for a zombie apocalypse-themed web series just outside their apartments
on S. Mendenhall St.

Jason, notebook and pencil in hand, leads and organizes the discussion,
breaching the topic of main character concepts.

Jason takes notes as Chris elaborates on the character of "Bill",
the stereotypical classically trained actor: "You know, he's always like
'My name is William' and everyone else is like 'Shut the **** up, Bill!"