IMAGE OVEROAD

I have spent this entire weekend scouring for the images I am going to use for my book, as well as mourning the loss of my sim card that had the photos I had already taken for my book a week ago. So, it seems another photoshoot is in order. Joyous.
I feel like a super-stalker because I spent hours on facebook searching for the images I need, and all in all it has proved less than calming to track them down.
I plan on coming to class tomorrow with the materials and pieces I am going to use in my book, and planning exactly the methods/assembly I will use. But for the most part my selection of photos is done (hopefully thats the easy part).

Tomokan

Firstly, a question: Is it "tomOkan" or "Tom-ah-kin" (like the Native American tool thing??)

     Now description: In lieu of my typical innate response to do it all, and the likelihood I would freak out and be less than successful, I have re-thought this assignment (shocking I am sure).
     I am now doing a photo book on memory as self identity, and I will focus on some of my memories and how they have been integrated into my self identity- but I didn't want to limit myself to the theatre major box, so I am not. I am exploring all the different identities, activities, and values I have (as an actor, musician, and "lawyer") . I will do pages on myself and what I think defines me, as well as a few pages on two of my close friends from theatre, and show how the way someone is "presented" in a play, or in a yearbook, is not all there is to them. I am going to be presenting this in somewhat of a year-book essence, as my friend Kevin is an athlete, as well as psychology major, and my other friend Morgan is an art history major as well as theater, and is also in a sorority. Not going to lie...I'm pretty stoked for this now.

Namaste.

Stress, Gluesticks, and Ink Pen Hunting

I thought today's class was really interesting. The quick essays I found really helpful. I thought it was interesting how we all have read the same redings and yet have completely different outlooks on what memeory is--which to me is th essence of memory. Amy and I were given the same questions, and agreed often, but where we differed neither of us was incorrect, just different. Memory is not one aspect, one framework, or one result. Which i think we all need to keep in mind--we all need to be a bit freed from attempting to be "right". Memory, even when taken from a psychological perspective, is still very personal.

I found Fran very helpful too, and her perspective on the photos we looked at reminded me that I may be doing a page that I think is absolutely perfect and an accurate representation of what I am trying to portray, but its all completely subjective.
 

Sidenote: Where the heck is this artist store where I can get the paint pen thing?

Iconic Photos

We were asked in today's class to come up with some iconic photos and examine how they affect/evoke differences among us, so here are a few I came up  with:

After our discussion today I started to think about collective memory, and how few of these occurences happened while I was alive, but I have a memory of them , and it occurrs to me that as relates to our cultural memory the events and images that are collectively passed on among us are those that threatened our nationality ( I think.)

I found this picture (stumbleupon!!!!) of two men after a Holi festival. And I really enjoyed it because for me, it really is gives me an understanding of punctum. To me the punctum is not the joy or color on their faces, but the fact that in the bottom right corner you can see that one man has his arm around the other one. I don't know why, but I really enjoyed that...thus it is posted.

Mayflower Folk

I had a delightful dinner with Fran today, and as we worked on her book we talked alot about the generational gap and explored photography as pertains to that. It was so interesting! How much effort was put into pictures "back in the day"....where as today I'm content if I so much as have mascara on in the picture. And its not even because of a change in "standard" I don't think. I think it has more to do with that our accessibility, and it has desensitized us (as Fran puts it). I think it is most evident in her photos of her son, and its interesting to have a book of a life, in pictures, that pretty much charts the difference in photography over the decades.

Found Photography

As we have started reading about found photography, I started looking for some random photos. I'm a bit perplexed at this found photography section, as I had no particular connection to any of the photos I found. I still try and understand why people collect them. And while I find other people's photos interesting, I still don't get someone collecting them by the hundreds. I think found photography has more to do with imagery and the value society has for photos, than actual memory-connections. Of these photos I found I have no memory connected to any of them, but I appreciate each of them for their "face value".

Progress

     In the past week my Mayflower person, Fran, and I have continued to talk about what her vision for her book is-- and in an effort to speed along the process, I made her a CD of songs that I thought might have themes she would like to explore, as well as found some life quotes she may like to use. She had a few Rollins students do a project about her, and gave me the essay they wrote, which I think might be nice information to use in her album and take sections from. She also gave me a letter she wrote upon her return to Germany post-WWII, and I also chose some sections from that that she may like to use (with the intent of making the book somewhat of a living letter to her family). She has chosen to make it more auto-biographical, but wants to focus on her middle ages onward rather than her childhood and the Holocaust. I have been searching for some pictures for her to use from places she has traveled to, and also finally located the original Howard Johnson logo that was used while she worked there. I purchased some materials for her that she may like to use in her book as well. I get the impression that she wants it to be more artistic (she is very into the arts and painting and theatre) so I am researching some ways to make that happen, while also preserving the artifacts she has chosent to include, such as old photos, newsprint articles, documents, etc.
     I have also been thinking about my book as well, and in working on Fran's have come to find that I want to change my approach a bit too- and since I am using a Rollins yearbook I have come to like the idea ofmaking my final project a bit more personal, and more about my values and what I hope to share or instill into the subsequent classes of Rollins. As I looked through the class of 2004s pictures (prior to ripping them out) it occurred to me that the yearbook doesnt actually portray one single year in time, the relationships displayed on the pages were years in the making--and is the epitome of memory and photo, and I relly enjoyed that-- and liked the freedom it gave me to be less literal with the assignment. So instead, I still want to explore the different avenues of memory through images, but I want to do them as relate to me and my memories, or what I hope to remember-- knowing that they too have been years in the making. I want to explore some of teh things in my life that I have kind of put on the backburner in terms of "discovery", because the reality is that 2013 is a hell of alot closer than I think.