week6

WHAT I DID: This week was the first week where I didn't go out and shoot pictures. I focused on thinking about my idea and my proposal. I got a lot of feedback from my family and other students. This week was a lot of thinking and wondering which feels slightly unproductive, but is also necessary sometimes. I'm the person who thinks and thinks and feels like it's not getting me anywhere, and then while I'm doing something unrelated like taking a shower or cleaning my apartment, a light bulb goes on and it all makes sense. That's kind of what happened with deciding my idea- I was so frustrated, and then one day it made sense.
WHAT I DISCOVERED through the thinking this week is that my proposal was fairly clear. It seemed that it was easily understood, and liked- I didn't have anyone that didn't get it, didn't like it, or didn't understand it. The feedback I got was a lot of questioning about what I expect or want to happen in different scenarios. Since my project is dependent on the participation of other people, there is a lot of curiousity about "what if they don't want to participate?" or "what if you don't get what you need?" or questions I haven't figured out yet like who I want my subjects to be and what I'm going to ask them. I made a list of potential questions but that will continue to change I'm sure.
WHAT'S NEXT: At this point I've done all the thinking I can handle at the moment. It's time to get back to the doing while I wait for that lightbulb to turn on in the shower. It's hard to account for time spent thinking- because it never stops. I wake up in the middle of the night and thats what I'm thinking about. I chose this project because it's something that's very interesting to me, but it's way outside of my comfort zone to talk to people I don't know. I hope that this project will help me grow as a person and get over my fears, but it's possible that I won't be able to make myself do this and end up changing or modifying the project. I hope that trying to push myself turns out to be rewarding, even if I plan to take 5 steps and end up only taking 2. It's time to attempt to talk to a couple people and see how it goes. That is my weekend homework.

Here are some creative portraits I like that I found this week:

By Philippe Roy

By Simon Green
By Igor Motl
By Annie Leibovitz from her "Stars in Wonderland" series