Advising Meeting

Tuesday October 6, 2009

Today I had a meeting with Vaughn to discuss shooting at the reunion on Sunday (the 11^th). I have thought a bit about how I want to shoot the images, and about collecting a writing excerpt from each subject to be scanned in along side the images I make. I thought about asking some questions or a question similar to “Did you grow up during the depression era, and if so how did that affect you/your life growing up?” I think this would be broad enough to give both the viewers and myself insight into these portraits and how they relate as a whole- and would help the viewers connect with the people and their photographs. Immediately Vaughn said that presenting a handout questionnaire at the reunion would not be the best method.

His points: Being elderly, some of these people may not have written in a long time; They may not know how to write; They came to this reunion to have fun, see old friends, fellowship, eat- not answer a questionnaire; If they even considered writing something (or were able to) they would probably rush and write down something hurriedly so they could leave; We are lucky enough they will take time out of their reunion to allow us to photograph/interview them for the archive project (in conjunction with my thesis project).

His suggestion: After I photograph each person I will let him or her know I appreciated their time and would like to bring them a final print of their photograph. If they would like a print and would also like to talk to me for a bit about themselves I will leave room for them to write their contact information (phone number, address, etc.) on their release form. I will also photograph the release form immediately after photographing each person, ensuring I know which image corresponds with each person.

My thoughts: I think this will be a good alternative to interviewing each person at the reunion. They aren’t at the reunion to be interviewed, so why would they want to. I’m thankful enough to meet and photograph each person- and it will be awesome if I can sit down and talk with them at a later time and get to know them individually. It will also be interesting to go to their environments and learn more about who they are. The reunion is a great opportunity for me to produce some images for my thesis, but not all of my photographs will be made at this time. I don’t actually know how many people I will be able to photograph at the reunion, but since my aim is to have 15-20 final images (each of a different person) I’m sure that for the remaining photographs I will need to seek out people in their natural environments; there won’t always be an interesting church reunion to go to. I don’t think the fact that probably many images will come from other locations than the church reunion is hindering- I’m hoping to learn a lot on Sunday, especially since it will be my first shoot for the thesis. It will be an experience that will greatly determine how I go about photographing the rest of the project. There is a lot of unknown for me about Sunday because I haven’t really talked to Jim Conrad in person about his Collections Project and I don’t really know how my thesis is going to fit in with the Collections Project yet, but after I talk with him and learn more about it, I’ll finally know how involved they want me to be (having my prints exhibited with their work, if they want me to speak about the project, etc.)