Research Photographers

I think that my project will most closely resemble the “Hospice” pieces. I know that this seems to be the most obvious choice due to the medical aspect. I tried to look for parallels that were a little less blaring. As I researched further, I thought that it was interesting that I am not trying to create something similar to just one of the artists, but I saw pieces of my vision for this project within most of the artists who contributed to the “Hospice” exhibition: Jim Goldberg, Nan Goldin, Jack Radcliffe, Sally Mann, and Kathy Vargas.

Jim Goldberg often combines handwritten pieces that have been contributed from his subjects to go along with the images. This has been something that I have been thinking about adding to my multimedia piece. I have written as a form of self discovery about the history of my illness and how I feel about this. I think that this contribution would add another layer to the multimedia project. He also documented his fathers’ illness as he was in hospice care in his home in Florida. I am still trying to figure out how exactly I can show this, but a large part of my discovery involves my father. His was the gene that carried my kidney disease, and I have discovered a lot about this process from him. I really liked the usage of multiple photographs in one image that Jim Goldberg employed, and I plan to try to do something similar at times in order to tell a story.

Nan Goldin is an artist that also uses multiple images in a sequence in order to tell a story. I think from looking at the different methods each artist uses to do this had opened up my mind a little more about how I will arrange my images to tell my story, though I think I am still figuring out which story it is I want to tell. Another thing Nan does well is show fears that people have. Her images contrast from mine because they contain human subjects that invoke emotion. I would like my images to invoke emotion as well without containing human images. For example, I think that some of the images in which I have captured waiting rooms give a sense of isolation or feeling slightly alone.

I feel like because Jack Radcliffe’s work relied a lot on long term, intimate contact with people it is hard to say that I feel his work also fits into what I am trying to achieve. I do think that the fact I have been going to the same doctor since birth had opened up a few doors to me that may have otherwise not been available, but I don’t think that it served the same purpose as Jack Radcliffe’s relationships. He needed people to be comfortable with him so that he could photograph them in real, raw ways. I need the relationships to be able to photograph at all, but I think as they grow I am allowed more access.

Sally Mann’s work was also directly related to her father and the death of things that she loved. I remember when we watched the video about her she described an almost domino effect in which her dog had died , an escape convict had been murdered on her land, and her father became terminally ill. Even though in her “Hospice” work she searched outwardly into other families, I feel like her work was driven by a personal emotional need to document these things as a form of inquiry into death and the emotions that she felt I, which is something that I can relate to in my work. I feel like as this project has grown, it has become a method of my own self discovery about how I feel about this illness. Sally Mann seemed to be able to show her emotion through her photographs, and this was an intensely personal subject (as was with all of the artists it seems). I hope to be able to do the same.

In Kathy Vargas’ work I read that she often tries to also convey a message of hope. I really liked this idea, and I hope that I too can show that I have hope even though most of the time it can simply be scary. Her images seemed to do so by their lighting. This causes me to think more about how the light of my images not only control the aesthetic, but also how the lighting portrays a mood.

As an exhibition “Hospice” seemed to be meant to provide a look into hospice, and show people the emotions that go along with having a family member in hospice care as well as showing its importance. It also seemed to be a way for the artists to explore parts of themselves that were questioning things like death, sickness, and loss. I want my project to be similar: a way for me to explore a sickness that I have been thinking about but too afraid to look at closely. I would like to open up my own eyes to what I feel about this experience.

I don’t want this to become a work that is political, though I often find myself making images that seem to want to make a political statement. I have a few images that show a surplus of medication that I have in case I no longer have insurance when I graduate. “Hospice” was meant to open up people’s eyes to the importance of Hospice care in a time when people may not have understood it, it seems. I feel like right now we are in a time where there is a very strong debate over the future direction of health care. I have had a hard time deciding which corner I stand in, and I think this project is also a way for me to find my footing about how I feel about the political debate that is going on.

In Progress

The CCP

When we viewed Lauren Greenfield's work at the Center for Creative Photography I found all of the images compelling in their own way. There was one that stood out to me more than the others though, and that was the one that contained a woman who looked as though she had just gotten her nose done. I thought this image was really interesting becuase at first glance that is all it seems to be: a woman who has just gotten a nose job. When I looked closer however, the information in the picture seemed to reveal more. This woman and her husband are at what seems to be a daytime party (due to the balloons), and this made it seem to me that nose jobs are relatively common wheere she is and not something to be embarrased about. I personally would probably want to stay home until my bandages came off, but she is at a party. I also found it interesting that this woman seems to be concerned about her appearance becuase of the nose job. But what seems to be her husband seems to be the opposite. He is sitting next to her in kind of a scummy sleaveless shirt, drinking what looks like it is probably a beer and doesn't look like he cares much about his appearance. She on the other hand if wearing a nicer sun dress making it seem as though in their relationship she is the only one that is concerned about these matters.



I really enjoyed the color used in these photographs. It is really dense and vibrant, and I really appreciated how it brought life to the images. I think that if they had been in black and white why would not have as much of the everyday life feel that they had to me. I think this feel is important becuase even though they feel like images that were taken in someone's everyday life, when I looked at them more closely they contained a liot of material that was clearly not as "normal" as I had originally thought. I also thought that it was interesting that the woman with the nose job was almost in the middle of the photograph. It really brought my attention to her first, but it didn't seem to only be saying, "This is a pticture of a woman with a nose job" becuase of everything going on around her.



While we were at the CCP we also viewed a lot of documentary photography that was a lot more abstract than the things we had previously been viewing. I really liked this. I thought that it was interesting that it could be considered documentary photography without showing images of people, places and things that happened. rather, they were showing images of things that have happened in a less forward way. I especially liked the image by Michael Flowman. I thought that it was amazing how he captured the dimension and texture of the snow from underneath, and when I read the caption it sait that he likes to capture images of things we cannot see. This made me wonder if this is what it looks like under the surfave of the snow. All of the abstraction in this exhibit made me want to include a few images of my own in my final project that were a little more abstract.

Worth 1000 Words

War Photographer

At the beginning of the “War Photographer” video, it seemed as though Jim was very disconnected from his subjects. The manner in which the video was filmed made it seem as though there was an invisible barrier between the photographer and the subjects that he was shooting. At first, it was hard for me to understand how someone could put themselves into situations of starvation and genocide and intense pain and seemingly feel nothing about the people that are his subjects. I also thought that he may have been standing further away from the people than the video camera angle made it seem. He seemed to be right in front of them in a really emotional moment, and they didn’t even seem to notice him.

As the video went on, I learned that as he stated, “In times of war, normal codes of civilized behavior are suspended. It would be unthinkable to document people grieving in normal times.” But because the times that he is photographing in are far from normal, these people have come to trust him to document the hardships that they are going through. He is far from distant (as I had originally thought.) He is the voice of people who have become victims, and he is being trusted to share their story. He hopes to bring about change, and I thought that was very powerful.

Something that I found to be especially gripping about this video was the fact that looking at the pictures by themselves created a powerful image, but when I heard the story behind them they seemed to be turned into more for me. I read a book called “An Ordinary Man” about the genocide in Rwanda. It was the true story about the man who inspired the movie “Hotel Rwanda.” I think that often times someone can be told that “Between April 6 and July 4, when the Tutsi rebel army captured the capital of Kigali , approximately eight hundred thousand Rwandans were slaughtered. That’s eight thousand lives a day. More than five lives per minute.” Being told something like this is hard for someone like me to comprehend, but seeing the photos taken in Rwanda and thinking about the book made the tragedy that already touched me take a new life. The fact that his images are places in magazines alongside the stories of the people in them is very powerful to me. I also thought that the fact that Jim took photos of the people that had been massacred and then weeks late took photos of the people who most likely did the killing dying themselves was also very interesting.

When Jim started talking about the photos he had taken of people dying of starvation in Africa, I found this to be the most gripping portion of the video. For a larger part of the video I wondered how someone could witness this much pain and need without getting lost in the desire to do something about it. It wasn’t until almost the end of the video that I realized he is doing something about it. Jim is bringing attention to topics and people all across the world in countries including our own. He is creating an awareness that needs to created, and he is providing images that make something that is incomprehensible—something that people can begin to wrap their heads around. He spoke of the starvation in Africa. As he did so, he made a point of saying that people need to know that the people being photographed are the ones that are receiving aid. They are not simply people who are starving that are photographed and then walked away from. I think this fact was supposed to provide comfort to the viewer, but walking away from this video I feel haunted by that fact. The people in these photographs were receiving aid and food, but they looked like skeletons shrouded in skin. There was an image of a toddler who was lying next to what looked to be a family member who had died. If this is what the people who are in feeding centers look like, what condition is everyone else in? Jim said that, “famines are the oldest weapon of mass extermination and one of the most effective.” I am left with the images of these people, and I think I will be for a long time to come.

Proposal #2

This project would be one with more of an environmental feel to it. I would like to go to local landfills and photograph the waste that we create in Tucson. I don’t think that I should have a problem getting into the landfills or photographing in them. It seems to me so far that the only time special permission is needed to be in one of these places is when you are actually dumping something. I feel that I would be able to document the amount of waste (I am still unsure if it would be considered a large or small amount of waste) in an interesting way.

I think that this would be a good location to shoot in because I often find items that have been discarded as interesting and often unworthy of being thrown away. I think that it would be very interesting to see what people throw away over the next couple of months.

There are a few paths that I think that this project could take: If I am able to capture images of items that people would still use, I would like to create diptych images of the discarded item and something similar being sold at a yard sale or second hand store. I think this would be a good way to display the idea of waste, and I think this is something that is very important given our current economic climate. If I am unable to do this I still think that it would be interesting to document the state of the landfill: the people who come, the way it looks, how much it costs, maybe illegal dumping spots that do not require payment, etc. I think that there are a lot of interesting directions that this project could take, and I believe it would result in something I have yet to have previously documented.

The first step I would take with this project would be to go to the landfill for a few days in a row and see what I ended up capturing during these shoots. After this preliminary step, I think I would be able to more accurately decide which way this project wants to go. I don’t anticipate too many problems with bringing this project to fruition other than a possible lack of subjects to shoot.

Proposal #1

This project would be an autobiographical one. I want to try to explore a health condition that I have had since birth. Previous to this I have written a short story in which I have tried to explore my history involving this disease. I mapped out my relationship to my father (the person who I received the gene from), when I first discovered that he was sick, when I first discovered that I had the same disease, and how I now feel as the disease progresses.

My plan to document this project through photography would be to photograph my doctor visits, blood work, and possibly the future that awaits me when the disease progresses e.g. dialysis, transplant, etc. I do foresee HIPPA getting in the way. I understand that In a lot of cases I might not be allowed to photograph in dialysis centers or areas where there may be kidney patients. I think that I could work around this problem by showing my future through different avenues. One Idea that I have had for this is to photograph the medications that I am taking now as my present and the medications my father is taking as my future.

I also wonder if the timetable will be a problem. Although this is a condition that impacts my everyday life, it is not something that I can show in an everyday way. I do have blood tests and doctor appointments in the next month, but I wonder if I can show these things in a way that would be interesting to anyone else, In addition, when I write about these things, I find that I still write with a little bit of discomfort or distance from the subject. I wonder if I would shoot in the same manner.

In class we had a lecture in which we talked about capturing an image of a person or a self portrait without including images of the actual person. I think that this is the method that I would want to use to capture this project. I would like to show the perspective of having this disease through each stage of my own personal discovery through my own eyes without including images of myself.