Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Beautiful Zion, Built Above



"And the Lord called his people ZION
because they were of one heart

and one mind

and dwelt in righteousness

and there was no poor among them."

Souvent quand je parle avec des gens pour la première fois, ils me demandent d’où je viens.  Avant de répondre, je me prépare pour le pire.  « Provo, » je dis. « Happy Valley ! » est une réponse que j’entends fréquemment.  Ou parfois ils parlent du « bubble. »  Et une fois, une fille m’a dit d’un ton railleur, « Oh, you’re a Utah Mormon. » 

Mais ce que ces personnes ne comprennent pas est que ce stéréotype est bien dangereux. Il existe plein de problèmes dans la ville de Provo, et cette idée chimérique ne fait que nous donner un sentiment d’autosatisfaction.  Comme Brassai, je voulais montrer une autre côté d’une ville.  Mais pour mois, ce n’était pas tout à fait nécessaire de sortir la nuit pour la trouver.  C’est possible que vous ne compreniez pas le sens de toutes les photos.  Si vous avez des questions, peut-être il faut apprendre à connaitre la ville un peu plus.

4 comments:

  1. My favorite part about this is that the photos weren't taken with a fancy fancy camera. Rock on!

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  2. I think this had a really strong theme to it that carries the photos. It really reminds me of Robert Frank's The Americans, except with a twist since he was a skeptical outsider, while you're a native Provoite! It would have been cool to have a closer up shot of the Christus statue so that the contrast was stronger. I also think that the blurriness in the fourth picture seems a little out of place next to the other photos. But really interesting idea - great job!

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  3. Great theme and use of text. The text really supported this essay. I like the first and last pictures the best because I think they express the theme and tone of the essay most effectively and also connect seamlessly with the text. The other pictures feel more forced. I would have liked to see a more apparent direction in the third photo, because its hard to tell exactly what I'm looking at. This would be interesting to compare to the other photo essay "Une Promenade dans 'la bulle'" which has a totally different message. Cool project!

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  4. Very cynical view, and some of them could not be more true!!! However, some of them I am not sure on what you were trying to communicate such as the mannequins in the window. Immodesty maybe? If so, it would have been better to communicate that on a real human.

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