Ben+Miller+Week+11

My Visual Story project revolves around pictures I've taken myself. I want to convey the idea that every decision we make in our day to lives has a lingering effect that we may not immediately notice. This can be a hard concept to demonstrate; in the real world the consequences of our actions may not become manifest for many months or years. I want to use a single day in the life of a typical college student and see how the seemingly insignificant decisions he makes affect his day. I'm thinking of showing what can happen when a student decides to take a day off from classes instead of attending. I want to show how a student can still have a rewarding day without doing what would be considered normal.

Ramage discusses defamiliarization in chapter 5. Defamiliarization is the idea of removing our personal connections with the photos when we view them. Even if we took the photograph, we must be able to look at it from an objective position. This will allow us to see what effect will be on the audience.

Since I took the photos, I will obviously know where they were taken, when they were taken, and who the subject is. The subject in this case is my friend Steve. I know a lot about Steve, so our relationship might affect the way I look at the pictures. I'll have to anticipate this and frame the pictures in such a way so that they will be accessible to the audience I want to reach.

In "Diana and Nikon," Malcom says, "A surprising and disturbing impression emerges from this melange of artistic and non-artistic photographs. One would expect the artless pictures to suffer when compared to the conscious works of art that surround them, but, oddly enough, they do not. The picture of the Indian chief is as beautiful and as moving as the Weston portrait; the moment captured by the photographer in front of the barbershop is no less decisive than Cartier-Bresson's Playing Ball with Children at Oyster Bay, 1894. in the ruins; Mrs. Roosevelt's snapshot may even have an edge on Kertész>s somewhat static composition."

I find this passage to be very applicable to my project. I know that I am not a professional photographer, but I still have a message I want to convey to someone. I want my audience to understand that the decisions they make every day can have a profound impact. I'm glad that even though I don't have the same tools or education that real photographers do, I can still create something with meaning.