Project preview

My class with Keisha Scarville and Jeanette Spicer at the International Center of Photography is over, and I wish it had been longer. I find that taking these classes is very helpful right now, because they are interesting and useful, and I learn a lot, but also because it gives me a way to organize my time and feel like I’m working on something. Because I am. But also I love school.

This project is ongoing, and lacking a complete description so far - I started out with a specific idea and ideas about what I wanted to learn or try, mixed with covid-19 restrictions and protocols, and of course my idea felt a little cobbled together out of random obvious things but it was enough of a starting point to start. And these things go that way anyhow, start in one place and (hopefully) develop a life of their own, or a somewhat new direction so that it’s not just this tiny flat idea floating around bored and lonely.

One of the things I wanted to try was to not rush through the shoot, because I tend to rush through photo shoots with people because I’m uncomfortable because I think they must be uncomfortable…but what i found in talking to people is that this isn’t generally true, and that if I tell them I’m not going to give a lot of direction, or that I will assume they are fine unless they tell me, it seems to be fine with them. And, not rushing to get a shot that will work, works for me. A few years ago I was trying to get better at feeling comfortable shooting people, and started working on Cartomancy, which was very people-heavy, with short little photo shoots, not on location. So this in some ways was an extension of portrait practice, which I needed.

Overall I’m happy with the project. I added other photos to it that I’d taken in the last year. The gallery below doesn’t display the photos that well in the combinations I developed for final presentation, but that is fine.