Looking Assignment

I chose the looking assignment from Aperature because I’ve been going to Barnes & Noble lately and perusing recent issues. Lange, as we have seen multiple other times throughout the course, does a fantastic job of using both word and image to tell a clear story. I realized after I read and looked through the essay that, once again, I didn’t need the words to have a fairly clear narrative of the same story, but they certainly provided extra information that was not captured in the photos. I wonder if Lange arranged her photos first and then decided what words to add or what… Either way, the section of images I chose includes my favorite photo in the set (the partially downed powerlines) and I think tells the heart of the story the best: A place that was once calm and couched in antiquity underwent a very destructive process that homogenized the previously beautiful landscape and then filled it with water. Even before the dam is shown in the final photo and without words, that story is fairly clear. Both the power line photo and the couple portraits on the floor are key pivot points in this story.

The preface to the story contains the most informative words in the essay, thought information about the people appearing the photos provide a richer context that give the pictures an added dimension.

Developing my Essay

At this point, I have come at my photo essay from at least three different approaches. The first approach I took involved just free associating and writing words that came to mind as I thought about my site. The second approach involved looking through my photos and trying to see thematic patterns. The final approach was the one that Anne guided us through which involved sifting out the strongest photos from the semester and then building a story from them, pulling in other photos to fill in plot/ideas. Surprisingly enough to me, the 2nd and 3rd approaches used many of the same photos in much the same order (note: I didn’t bring nearly enough images to my 1on1 session with Anne. Big mistake. This might be why we chose so many of the same images…)

Out of the three approaches, the idea that I’m the fondest of at the moment revolves around the idea of the Common as Home. I had a title idea that is a big of a double entendre: “The Life of a Commoner.” I am pretty sure I’m going to use words in the essay, but I’m not quite sure yet. At this point, I think I have all of the images that I’m going to use picked out, but I need to decide how I want to tell my story in order to determine what order to present them in. I am debating between dividing the “life” up into different functions/actions (eat, sleep, socializ, and work) or just providing a linear, meandering sort of story line. At this point, I might just build both and see which I like better.

Favorite Past Photo Essay

2009: On Houses.