You Move Like a Poem

Process: October 2018

W. Whitman famously said, "I am large, I contain multitudes". Your task is to photographically explore said multitudes as they relate to yourself and to another human-being. In each case, you will ultimately be addressing "who am I/ who are you?".

IDEATION

at my desk (side angle)
at my desk, dead on shot, candid
at desk, computer in foreground, in frame
in my car, dead on, steering wheel in the foreground
in car, side view, from passenger seat
sitting on car
sitting on ground, against car
plain background, headphones in
laying on ground, headphones in
listening to music, drawing
reading a book

Ideas for my brother

at computer/desk
doing homework
at desk, playing video games, side view
at desk, playing video games, dead on view
at desk, computer in foreground
shoes off, school backpack in background
baseball shoes on, baseball bag in background
building/assembling something
portrait show, computer light the only light source
portrait shot, colored led lights only light source

Reflection on ideas

In lab, I brought in images of more nature based things, but we ultimately decided that that would be cliche, and I thought that a ton of other classmates would pursue that idea. I did say that I wanted to capture me and my subject in a way that was natural. Not too editorial or super composed. I really liked the more honest and candid images showed in lecture, rather than images that were super planned out and refined. I think some of my ideas for myself could read as composed, but I want to execute them in a natural way.

I think the images for my subject, aka my brother, will, in theory, be easy. That it, if he actually lets me take pictures of him. I want him to be in his natural environment, and I don't want him to feel like he has to try for this or anything. As for myself, a self timer is going to be key, as well as a better quality camera. I have access to a DSLR camera that I'm definitely going to be utilizing. I want to photograph myself in my natural state, which might feel a little fake or forced since I am planning on using the self timer, but the sentiment would be there.

FINALS

My Subject

First off, I completely changed my idea. I decided that if I was going to be photographing my brother, someone that I've known for the majority of my life, I wanted to make sure that I was doing him justice. We've always been super close and have always held a pretty close connection with each other. I knew I had to photograph him in a way that not only showed him, but that showed his relationship with me. Our relationship has definitely changed since I moved to college last year, and I can unfortunately say that I really don't talk to him as much as I would like and should. So, when photographing him, I just wanted it to be natural. I didn't want there to be any stress or tension caused by the camera and I didn't want him to be miserable by the end of the shoot. That's when I decided what my final topic would be about: Home.

I think home is about where you feel the most like yourself, and where you feel the most comfortable and safe. For my brother's images, I wanted to capture him where he felt super comfortable, but also a little more visually interesting than the inside of our family home, so we took to nature and went on a walk around our neighborhood that we've lived in for nearly all of our lives. I let him lead the way, and we just talked. We talked out anything and everything; him breaking up with his recent girlfriend, how school is really going for him, and what life now like for the both of us. My brother truly is a goof, but he's also incredible funny and intelligent, and possesses many personality traits that I'm so envious of. I strongly believe that he wouldn't have been so comfortable and carefree if we hadn't been in a place so familiar.

Honorable Mentions

***not my final 3 but definitely worth mentioning; really shows off a lot of his personality.

FINAL THREE

The Final Three.

For the first image, I wanted to show how mature he actually is (even though I still think of him as an immature little brat, sometimes). And although it won't be obvious to anyone but me and probably my parents, he really looks old in that picture, because he hasn't physically changed much in my eyes. For the second image, I wanted to really display his personality. Obviously, he doesn't look that great... but I think it really shows off his goofy side, even though he might kill me when he finds out I chose that picture as a final. He really was just being himself, though, and I thought it was super important to show that. Lastly, is the third image. He really is a happy guy, and I think he deserves to feel that way no matter what. He likes to have fun and goof around and make people laugh, which is why I thought the third image was imperative to displaying how he is as a person. I took almost 200 pictures of him because there was so much to photograph. He's a complex person, and narrowing him down into three images was nearly impossible, but I believe these three envelop everything that he is as a person. I get this great sense of feeling at home whenever I talk to him or see him, so as much as these are just photos for a class, they are much much more to me.

(thank you for actually reading this, if you do. It ended up being much more emotional and sappy than I intended).

Myself

Needless to say, this portion was A LOT more difficult for me. I think a lot of people struggle ways to define themselves, myself included. But when I thought of carrying the idea of home through to my images, I began to see myself in a way that I could capture within an image.

Unfortunately, I'm an extremely cliche person, and my ideas for these images were no exception. Firstly, I LOVE music. Just like everyone else. But, I'm that person that is listening to music literally all the time. I walk to the bus stop with my headphones in, I walk to and from classes with headphones in, I do homework listening to music, the list goes on. I very much AM that person that wears my headphones any time that I possibly can, listening to music literally every second of every day. I think it has almost become some sort of a problem for me, because I genuinely feel so comfortable and relaxed wearing headphones all the time. Another thing that brings me so much joy and comfort is reading; yet another cliche thing about myself. I don't think that many people my age do read for fun, but I definitely do. Reading helps to clear my mind and with risking sounding like a cliche idiot, makes me feel like I'm in a completely different reality (ew). I think reading is fun and it certainly reminds me of my childhood when I would literally read a book a week.

My last idea kind of came out of nowhere, and is much more literal than the others, but it ended up displaying some of my personality, which the other photos didn't show as much. I really wanted a candid of myself, but of a situation that I truly felt at peace in. So when I went home to take pictures of my brother, I had him take a few of me at the end of our walk. I think the photo I chose accurately represents how I feel on the inside when I'm physically at home, in the place that I spent nearly all of my life. It's a much more literal representation of home than the others, but it felt right to include it.

FINAL THREE

I'll admit, taking photos of myself was extremely difficult, especially when you're doing it all by yourself. Because I was by myself, I definitely had some difficulty doing easy things like focusing the camera and making sure I was in the frame. Because of all of this, I'll admit, there is an extreme lack of visual cohesion between the images of myself, but I kind of like that about them. All of these pictures represent home to me, in their own (maybe cliche) way.

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