East Caney Baptist Church

Sunday October 11, 2009

Sunday morning started off a little rough. I was told the wrong time to meet in the parking lot but the miscommunication was resolved when I contacted Conrad and he gave me directions to the church. After getting lost several times on the hour-long journey I finally made it to the church! The church is actually named East Caney Missional Baptist Church. I was surprised that the description of the church truly matched the actual buildings- but the location and atmosphere was different than I expected. The Collections Project and myself arrived at the church pretty early, so there was a lot of sitting around while waiting for the 11 o-clock service to end.

Each Sunday after the first service there is a potluck lunch in the dining hall. We were all invited to eat with the church members so after making introductions and shaking hands with several people we sat down for a wonderful home cooked meal. These people can really cook! I was able to talk to a few people from the Collections Project about my thesis and everyone seemed really interested in all of the possibilities for the project.

After lunch the Collections Project began conducting interviews. Conrad suggested that to keep things flowing I could photograph people after they were interviewed. That worked for me so I asked to sit in on one of the interviews. At this point there was only about an hour and a half until the next church service started. The interview took about an hour. I was surprised because I thought they were short, 15-minute interviews. We would both have been able to talk to and photograph more people if the length of the interviews were shortened. It’s hard to find a time balance in a very short lived situation- The Collections people wanted to learn so much about the members of the church, but the members were on a time crunch to get back to their fellowship and afternoon service. In the end there were three interviews conducted and four people interviewed by the Collections Project and photographed by me. The Collections Project was hoping to interview more people, and they are planning on talking to some of the members at their houses at a later time so they can gain some more information.

The Collections Project documents the lives of these people for historical purposes. They weren’t extremely concerned with the environment or atmosphere of the interviews. The church members were interviewed in a fluorescent lit, small Sunday school room with white walls. The church didn’t have much else to offer for the interviews besides these rooms. Although the information gained about these people was very enlightening and extensive for the Collections Project, the photographs made in these windowless and dull rooms didn’t really convey the people in a way I had envisioned. I learned a lot about two of the people I photographed because I sat in on their interview. But since I didn’t sit in on all of the interviews I didn’t really know a lot about the other two people I photographed. The photos are really just head-shots that don’t say a lot about the people. I was able to obtain the addresses of the people I photographed and I hope to visit some of them and photograph them in their environments at a later time. I was partially disappointed with the experience, but I didn’t know what the photographic situation would be coming into it. Being my first shoot, I was slightly overwhelmed and did not really know what I wanted to come out with. It was a good experience in seeing the difficulties that can arise with photographing people. For better or worse, Vaughn was not able to attend the reunion. I think he would have been able to direct me in how to handle the situation better, but I am still thankful for the opportunity to attend the reunion and gain some experience in interviewing and photographing people.

Reflecting on The East Caney Reunion – October 12, 2009

Vaughn and I met last Tuesday to look over and discuss the photographs and experience at the reunion. Vaughn threw a lot of questions my way concerning the images and methodology behind them. After photographing the people at East Caney, I want to go in a different direction with the project. What connection do I have to those people? What did I really learn in those 3-4 hours having small talk and making portraits of their faces? I had to photograph them- and by doing so I know it isn’t where the project needs to be. I need to spend time with people in their own environments- taking time photographing them so the project can take a life of its own, allowing me to really explore people’s lives.