Full Picture

In these pictures i hoped to display our tendency to totalize people(reduce them to a single idea, a stereotype i guess you could say), particularly through certain aspects of their lives, notably their jobs. Said otherwise, it's about identity, and about our perceptions and identifying people based on their perceptions. It's about our views of what's important, and how we discern that. I could explain more, but i'd rather let them speak for themselves (even though they are all very simple). I guess i'll just say that the order i placed the photos is important. It's also important that i put the descriptions at the end.

PS - I had to change cameras midway through the project, so that's why the last two pictures look significantly different from the first ones.

greg.

brandon.

megan.

jeff.

jared?

anna.

greg. before i snapped the photos, he gave me a few funny little poses, muscle man type or cupid type poses. he also jokingly asked if i wanted him to keep his clothes on for the picture. i thought he was serious at first, and i said, no, you can keep your clothes on.

brandon. i didn't say much to him, and he didn't say much to me. he chatted with his co-worker as i took the photos.

megan. she was working with another girl when i asked to photograph one of them. both were hesitant, but when i told them i wasn't going to show their faces both became less anxious and more willing to be photographed. the decision of which one of them was to be photographed still had to be made, and i think the girl who was not photographed made it. the girl who was photographed has a large scar on her left arm, and is missing her left eye.

jeff. as with most of the other photographs, i straight up asked him if i could photograph him, and he said sure. he said he 'understood' because he is a photographer and he often does the same thing (asks random people if he can take their picture). i'm not friends with him, but we've got many mutual friends, and i'd crossed his paths many times at social gatherings, as well as where he works. now when i see him, we wave to each other.

jared? some friends or people he knew snickered at him while i took the photo. i don't know why. i put a question mark next to his name because moments after the photos were taken and i walked away, i had forgotten what name he told me. i only think it's jared, but i'm probably wrong. he was surprisingly approachable, and his first words seemed to indicate that he was immediately going to help me, and do whatever i was going to ask him. the fact that i used the word 'surprisingly' signifies how much i had judged him before approaching him. on the one hand, i know that i had it in my head that people in his chosen profession are snobs (maybe partially because i've been thinking about it). on the other hand, i also think that people in general are hesitant to help other people. i created a totalized view of him even as i walked up to him, not knowing anything about him, even in the midst of making a photo essay about totalizing people. my totalized view of him placed on him attributes that were not his at all, and his essence, at first view, escaped me entirely. because, of all the people i photographed, i judged him the most blatantly, and completely missed the mark, i think that it's very fitting that i forgot his name. in judging him, he escapes me, just as i forget his name. in trying to totalize him, i lose him.

anna. i actually had to schedule through her superior a time to take her photo. the superior sent out a message to a few of the workers, and she was the only one who volunteered. when i got there to take the photo, some of her coworkers snickered at her, and she said they'd been jokingly jazzing her about getting her picture taken. i don't know why. what's more, she was very nervous and anxious about having her photo taken, but when i told her that i wasn't going to show her face, she calmed down quite a bit and was very relieved. i noticed this only with the women. the men didn't seem nearly as nervous and i never even had to tell them that no one would see their face.