Saturday, January 30, 2010

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.

13 comments:

  1. haha, I like the clash of title and content, "full picture" but you've left it up to us to fill in the blanks.

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  2. Wow...the Megan picture is profound...This is a great idea. I love the trend through and your idea. Good work.

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  3. I'm glad you gave us more textual information on the faceless people in the photographs. The fact that I know Megan is missing an eye, but can't see for myself is so intriguing!

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  4. Too much writing but creative with cutting off the heads

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  5. I think that an essay about essentialism is an excellent choice for the medium. And that by cutting peoples' heads off you're driving home the point that their identity skips the individual and focuses on the essentialized element. That said, the mail man is by far my favorite. To me the apparel is important, but it is the body language that makes it work. That's why I feel like the Megan and Anna pictures actually fail to convey the right message. specially with Megan, her pose is so contrived and unnatural, and shall I say, Indie-kid-posing-for-a-shot-with-the-band, that it fails to criticize essentialism by imposing an alternative essential. The rest of the photos seem very natural and telling of the profession. As a whole, I love it

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  6. My favorite picture is the one of Jeff. The one of Jared (?) is also great because his stance says so much. I agree with some of what Ryan says-- but I think that it's the ones with a lack of distinguishing uniforms that makes the photos work for me. It shows the human side to their jobs more than the other ones, where it seems more like the people have been reduced to their job.

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  7. The text for me was too hefty to care about reading. I love the idea and wonder if you posed them or if they just stood there. Being in their own stance might add more personality, like the photo of jared.

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  8. I'm not sure about the 'contrived' stances of the ladies, but I must say that I love that your subjects are 'in uniform', so to speak. Their clothing in combination with their stances, however, is more than the sum of its parts. It produces an effect that blows me away, and I find that the passive position of the cougareat worker (posing? defeat? acceptance?) is one of my favorites in the group. I envision her saying 'yes? what do I do next?'

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  9. Good use of space - I love how the figures fill the frames. The only disparity I see is the fact that every photo is not a full-body shot, with the exception of the man in the suit, which adds an element of inconsistency.

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  10. This is great. It really portrays the idea of people being reduced/defined by their jobs which is a great message. It was a lot of text and I didn't read it all of it because I thought the photos spoke for themselves.

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  11. I don't think the title is quite complete with what the photos are saying here. I do like cutting off peoples heads and how the viewer is put in the shoes of almost being with these people and judging them as they would if they really were there. Great concept. The photos are good. The last couple just need a little photoshopping to alter the color and tint in the photos. I think the body language from each the subjects is compliments the clothing message. Good job.

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  12. I think all of your photos are really strong, specially 1, 3, and 4, and that all really do express the message you are trying to convey. The face is the most emotionally expressive part of the body and by cutting that part out the viewer is forced to come to conclusions about the person strictly on their appearance. It leads the viewer to believe in a stereotype or look deeper and see if there are any other ways to decipher the person's personality.

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  13. I really like the way you give the explanations at the end of the pictures, it really makes me see the images in a whole different way and re-analyze them. I love the picture of the businessman because I thought he would totally be Mr. Joe Cool about taking the photo and be like, I am too good to have pictures taken of me, but the fact that he was super nice about it is totally, at least to me, atypical.

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