Chopping Down the Christmas Tree

Last Chirstmas I created a series of photographs attempting to capture the moment of chopping down a Christmas tree.

Typology (fall 2008)

Last fall, my advanced photography class was given the assignment to create a typeology. After racking my brain for hours on end to figure out what my subjects would be, i found my answer while reading a book. I noticed every piece of literature whether it is a book, newspaper, magazine or poster has a different texture, fond and color. I decided in my typology project that I would illuminate this seemingly obvious difference to my viewers.

Photobook (November)

Photobook (September)

A Day In The Life of Doane Stuart-Update

As a result of a relatively hectic week, with sectionals and sick days, the process of filming scenes for me and Shanon's latest project has been a bit difficult. At this point I unfortunately have only been able to complete scenes one and three. This week i plan to finish the rest of my scenes (5,7 and 9). On Monday, I plan to finish scene 9 and on tuesday I hope to finish scenes 5 and 7. Hopefully this week will be a little bit more manageable in terms of all my activities.

A Day in the Life of Doane Stuart scene list

Plan for shooting:

Scene 1: walking in from the front of school to the lockers –Done
Scene 2: walking from the lockers to Mr. Levy’s class room take a short series of him teaching –Incomplete
Scene 3: leave Mr. Levys room in pursuit to lockers from lockers go to chapel, in the chapel capture entire school to say the pledge and then sitting back down, capture a few announcements and then capture everyone leaving--Done
Scene 4: going back to the lockers, getting stuff and going to bio take a few min clip of Mrs. miller teaching incomplete
Scene 5: photographing Austen class semi complete
Scene 6: leaving Austen going to a club (photography) Incomplete
Scene 7: leaving club break walk to lunch room walk through the lunch line take picture of food and walk out to the field to document people playing ultimate Frisbee Incomplete
Scene 8: going from lunch to Spanish document Spanish class during game day Incomplete
Scene 9: walk from Spanish class out to the front entrance leaving the last image to be a picture of the fountain incomplete


Scene dividing:

Shanon: Me:
Scene 2 Scene 3
Scene 4 Scene 5 (Shannon gets walk I get class)
Scene 5 Scene 7
Scene 6 Scene 9

10/27/09- Scene 3, Scene 5
10/29/09-Scene 7, Scene 9

Photo Proposal For New Project

For our next project, Shanon and I have decided to team up and create a photo documentary of a day in the life at the new Doane Stuart. The idea for this project came to me when I was thinking about a similar project a friend of mine did over the summer of her schools organic farm. I immediately fell in love with the idea of creating a photo documentary and the opportunity finally arrived for me to create one. When I mentioned it to Shanon this past Thursday, she also loved the idea and was more than willing to help me create one.
We are not attempting to extract or artificially create a specific emotion that should be associated with Doane Stuart; we simply are attempting to capture what a real day in the life of a Doane Stuart person is.
The day will begin by walking towards Doane Stuart from across the street. The film will begin with a photograph of the front of Doane Stuart in its entirety. From there either Shanon or I will walk from the corner of the sidewalk to the inside of the building, taking pictures with every few steps, the entire walk from the street corner to the locker area is going to be photographed, and for the most part we hope or we will ask for people to act natural so we can capture what it is like to walk around the school before classes.
When it finally time for us to head to class, (depending on who has a free period) we are going to alternate the responsibility of photographing a particular class. We hope to capture what classes, like American Government or Advanced Chemistry, at Doane Stuart are really like. These photographs are not going to take up an entire class period, but we hope that in these few minutes we will be able to reveal how engaged Doane Stuart teachers and students are in their work.
After first period, we will head to morning meeting and take pictures from the pews. After morning meeting we will take pictures of the next two period classes. For second break, we may photograph a club meeting or a class meeting. After fourth period, we will photograph lunch in the Commons.
As well as documenting classes Dylan and I will also document what students do during their free periods, whether it’s studying or goofing off. Some things we will photograph more than others. For example we might only take two or three photographs of a class and take six or seven of lunch time or a free period. After the school day is over we will end as we started with the exception of heading away from the school rather than towards it