For critique, I showed all the photographs that I have selected and edited for my thesis. It was the first time I had seen all of them together and in a lot of it is a matter of narrowing down what use. I presented my idea of displaying my work as an installation of 4 photographs hung on wood the same wood paneling that is familar to many of my pictures and one very good point was brought up: the idea that creating an installation would take away from the meaning, intimacy, and focus of the photographs making it more about the space as opposed to my father because the space that I am recreating already exists in the photographs, which I never really thought of before. Some considerations that were recommended were possibly printing on different objects that might be meaningful to my relationship with my dad and including old photographs of him, but generally that I need to rethink things.
With those photographs I also showed some experimenting with photographing objects that my dad owns or collects, which might be useful with text, however, I shot them on backdrops as opposed to in their actual spaces. I'm scrapping this idea more or less. I'm annoyed at myself for having wasted time setting things up, but now I am going to focus 1) On more meaningful objects and 2) on photographing objects in their own spaces. When I look at it now I don't quite understand why I did it, I suppose when considering making a book I was planning on captioning, so I was hoping I could possibly write about the meaning of this object to my father. However, I showed my dad the pictures and he couldn't really remember where he got any of these objects except the ship clocks... Another suggestion for the book portion of my project was the idea of it being hand made--when I think of it existing as a book I cannot help to refer to Phillip Toledano, who's book Days with my Father is very clean cut and "commercial." I like the idea of making it by hand as opposed to sending it away and having it printed professionally. It would contribute to its meaning, exemplify the relationship I am trying to capture more, and add to the idea of memories and remembrance.
Basically I have some organizing and deeper thinking to do.
I really liked when you shared one of the notes he wrote with photo class last semester. I feel your project about your dad is about his illness or personality (perhaps both). By sharing the little things you see/find him doing, it brings everything together. Food for thought!
ReplyDeleteGood luck.
Including the handwritten notes was a great idea, and seeing the progression in photo class was helpful, too in figuring out what your are planning on doing. It may be worthwhile to see if you can get one of the project space rooms or borrow someones studio space and put up the paneling and end table and see how it looks with the pictures in the book. As well as the prints to see if the pictures of the wood paneling and the actual paneling are too distracting. If you want to keep the mock space you should just keep playing with it, i think it could work because it'd make the viewers go up and get close to the pictures and look through the book. I feel like photo albums are usually really personal and intimate so it's sort of like they'd be entering his space to go see what your dad is all about.
ReplyDeleteI think that shooting your fathers "things" in their environment as opposed to using a backdrop will have a much more emotional effect. I suggested maybe shooting the top of his dresser, his nightstand, maybe on top of a desk, or in his closet. Still life images that are not set up are often really cool because its a collaboration you would really never give much thought to when you walk past it on a normal basis. But if you look at the table that he sits next to for a lot of the day you can probably see a bunch of things that sum up a lot of things about his story. Maybe there will be a book, a remote for the TV, a specific kind of magazine, medication, or pictures in a frame, a glass of water, etc.. Or even the way things are will reveal things, like if it seems untouched for a long period of time or if it is messy and disheveled, or particularly neat. It can show a lot about someone. Perhaps he likes to have up to date technology, or perhaps he is one of those dads who doesn't even know how to use a cell phone because its too complicated. I think the wood paneling in the images is really nice and effective and gives off a lot of feel on its own. Although I thought the book on a coffee tab sounded interesting too.
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