A Lost Art

I have grown up in a family of mechanics so I thought every family just fixed things themselves when they broke. It was not until high school when I was one of the only ones changing my own oil that I realized that the day and age of the handyman was dwindling.

My parents own a forklift business and I think that some of the most interesting people I have met in my life have walked through their front doors, from the family man to the wanted. Speaking of, at one of the places I went to take photos for this assignment that manager went out and asked each employee if they had any warrants out for their arrest before I was allowed to take their photo. When I went to take one mechanics photo he said I was not allowed to take his photo, "for legal reasons..." Like I said I have met some of the most interesting people. I think these photos speak for themselves.

capture

"...And all the faces, all the clothes beneath the faces,
the shapes and gestures of bodies
were turning into one-line stories and I couldn't
stop summoning them, it made me dizzy:
all these lives that we were taking unawares,
confetti, heads of bobbing swimmers,
a sentence for each life. Please, when mine is read,
make it raw and beautiful at once."

- an excerpt from "Being Taught" by Dick Allen

A friend of mine said to me once, "People are complex and you must give them time to reveal themselves." So often I am guilty of seeing someone and then defining him or her from the few visual clues I have to work with. People are much more interesting than just their appearance though.
I chose to photograph individuals who deal with books: a personal librarian, a collector of rare books, a preventer of book theft, a book repair specialist, and a science fiction writer. As I photographed, I asked them to tell me about their favorite books. At first glance they are just people who work and move, but as each individual explained to me what they liked to read and why they enjoyed books so much they seemed to come alive. People are so much more than their small trade; they have interests, passions, thoughts, likes and dislikes. I tried to capture that complexity.

Personal Librarian
Favorite Book: The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Collector of Rare Books
Favorite Book: Astronomia nova, published in 1609, by Johannes Kepler
Preventer of Book Theft
Favorite Book: One In Thine Hand by Gerald N. Lund
Book Repair Specialist
Favorite Book: Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
Science Fiction Writer
Favorite Book: Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

DVA, Lucy Millward

For my project I decided to focus on majors, rather than jobs. I work for the Department of Visual Arts, so I am constantly around art majors. I thought it might be interesting to photograph different majors and see if I could see a connection between their major and how they look and dress. I think that people definitely identify with their work or major and even dress the part sometimes. This is more evident in some of the photos then others.

Rory, Graphic Design

McKayla, Animation

Ashley, Studio

Shad, commercial photography

Hillary, fine art photography

PS...blog perso

I might as well put in a shameless plug for my website as well...

JSHERIDAN photography

Enjoy! I'll be beefing up my portfolio as I get more work out here in Utah.

Unsung Heroes!

The first thing that came to my mind when we were given the assignment to photograph "small trades" was to photograph those people who contribute to our daily life and make everything easier, but whom we often take for granted. I thought it would be cool to catch them in the middle of their duties.Here is to our unsung heroes!

From New pics

From New pics

From New pics

From New pics

From New pics

From New pics

Jessica Sheridan - Aspiring Stylists

After being rejected by bartenders and tanning salon receptionists I FINALLY found a group that would let me photograph them: aspiring stylists of the Marinello School of Beauty. I wanted to convey the distinct personality (and stereotypes...) of hair stylists in this photo essay.

Coming to get you... - Warner Nielsen

The occupation that I chose to document is one that most people see in only black and white. And the feelings most people have towards the workers in this job are as varied as the colors; people either hate the person doing the said job, or they do not mind them. Such is the life of a traffic officer at BYU. I chose not to show their faces to help protect their anonymity but also to protect their self worth (maybe you can catch a glimpse of them lurking in the sacred parking lots of BYU campus seeking to destroy the lives of unsuspecting, innocent students). Each photo captures how pompous the officer appears to be as he writes a ticket and how glorified she looks as she sits in a booth restricting the visitor parking to none other than...visitors. In reality, these photos show how mundane and repetitive the life of writing tickets and maintaining parking privileges can be. The progression from crisp, clear images to a final blurred image represents the focus that is required during a hard days work of indulging in others pain, to a mixture of drudgery and regret (for the student) as the officer finds yet another ticket to write.