Thesis ideas

•My first thought is to continue the track I was on for Thesis I. I really enjoyed the process of taking and making these photographs, but i would like to expand my area of where these photos are taken. At this point, most of the photos are from about a 100 mile radius of San Marcos, and a few of my hometown and surrounding towns.

•As another way of continuing my project from Thesis I, I have thought about contrasting the slow paced, steady lifestyle I have been photographing with its exact opposite. I would compare specific situations showing the different ways things are handled, as well as the difference in the people approaching the problem.

•As another variation on my past project, I want to investigate the type of person that fixes something vs the person that always just buys a new one. This is still a pretty general idea but I think it could be interesting to see the types of people that are wiling to put the hard work and time into something, no matter how miniscule the object may seem. This would also show the type of person that is willing to fork over the money to always have the newest, fastest, or best.

• While working last semester, I spent a lot of time in my home town and started noticing the changing lifestyle of the area. A town built on oil is now in the center of renewable energy. The transition of jobs, population and ways of thinking in this area has become pretty interesting to me. If this is something I decide to pursue, I want to get an inside look into the developing industry of wind energy, as well as the declining industry of oil in the area.

•I have this smashed penny I made in Pikes Peak, CO when i was like 8 or 10 years old. Im not sure why I have held onto it for so long, it really doesnt have much meaning to me. This isnt the only thing like this that I have saved for no reason.I hope im not the only one that holds on to stupid little things like this. Again, I enjoy photographing and getting to know people and I think this could be another jumping off point for this. Possibly another idea i could try with digital/alternative layering for printing.

•Similar to this idea, I was thinking about the same process with family heirlooms. What it happens to be and why its so special to the family. Collecting portraits, info and family photos in the process.

•I have really enjoyed working in alternative processes and would like to continue experimenting with this. I want to find a way to incorporate digital prints into the finished product. I want to experiment with paper and proceProxy-Connection: keep-alive
Cache-Control: max-age=0

es to find a combination that will allow me to layer a digital print with an alternative one. As far as content for this processs, I want to use a portrait and a place or thing that is important to that person. Concept needs developing, but technically I am very interested in pursuing this.

•I want to find a way to sort of pry into the personal lives of the friends and strangers that I come into contact with. I would take a portrait of these people, and then ask to photograph the contents of their backpack/purse/car or some kind of personal item. I am interested in how we tend to read a book by its cover, so I would like to make this an interactive piece and allow viewers to take a guess at what might belong to who. This idea originated from this website I came across a while back. isthisyourluggage.com This guy takes lost luggage from the airport, lays out all of the contents, photographs & posts online hoping to find the owners.

•I am interested in looking into the interaction we have daily with people we come across and why some of those are more important than others. Everyone has something worth teaching or sharing, the problem is most of us arent willing to give the time of day to listen.

•Tourism is weird, I dont know why so many people travel so far to see the strange things they do and miss out on the real personality of a place. I just wanna make fun of it & try and catch the irony of why we travel so far to see something that someone says is worth seeing. While looking where were told we are missing what is really happening around us.

•This leads to a similar idea. Everyday we walk around distracted by cell phones, ipods, and anything else that puts us in our own little world. We work so hard to stay connected at all times so we dont miss a thing.I would like to look at just the opposite view. I want to show just what we could possibly be missing around us while we are trying so hard to stay connected.

•Of course I have always loved my sister, but until recently I havent really appreciated how lucky I am to have a sibling that I am so close to and can relate to like I do. Most of my life it was more of a rivalry than appreciation. I know every relationship is different, and I am interested in hearing their stories. I want to look into other siblings, photographing them together and separate capturing that love/hate thing we all know.

• I was thinking of childhood memories, and I think it would be interesting to reenact my memories as well as others memories. I want to mainly focus on embarrassing moments or major events that stick out in a kids mind. We all have them, and most of them are pretty funny. Seeing a grown man/woman in these situations will just add to the awkwardness.

• Another version of this idea is to execute all of my own memories and finally take the time to interpret why they are sticking out in my mind, and what effect they may have had on myself. This would mainly be about people in my life, short term or long term, and why they had such an impact.

• Everyone has a few people in their life that have had a huge influence on them. I want to pry into the thoughts of friends and family and find out why this person left such an impression

• With childhood memories still in mind, I want to build a wheres waldo-esque character and create my own search images. The idea for this project came about a long time ago, but I am yet to execute it. The challenge would be in working with large crowds as well as creating a recognizable character to stick out in these crowds.

•Isolation seems negative, but I think its necessary for everyone at some point. I would want to photograph this literally by using open landscapes and lifeforms at a minimum. In addition to this, try to capture this feeling without such a literal translation. I want to break negative ideas that usually go with this word, and illustrate how peaceful moments like this are necessary for everyone.

•The morning of my 21st birthday I found a gray hair. A few days later I swore I could see wrinkles around my eyes. Its not that im really that concerned with aging, but it triggered thoughts of stories behind wrinkles. With my last project, I ended up photographing a lot of older people. Every one of them had a new story behind those old wrinkles and gray hair.

If it aint broke, dont fix it

A few shots from my thesis 1 project. These photos were shot with 35mm and printed in the van dyke process. It began as a study for me to get back to my roots photographically and personally. Technically, I knew I wanted to work in some type of traditional process, after learning the van dyke process I knew it would fit perfectly with my concept. For these photos, I traveled around the state, mostly to small towns, to find the people and places that have withstood the changing times. The process of taking these photos quickly became my favorite part of this project. I had the opportunity to meet, chat, and learn alot from a few incredible people. You might recognize one in particular, my grandfather, who I will credit with my original inspiration for this project. No life exists with out a story and a past. These photographs are about capturing the lifestyle of these people in a single photograph. I hope these photographs show the pride and comfort in these people and their way of life.

“Stare. It’s the way to educate your eye, and more. Stare, pry, listen, eavesdrop. Die knowing something. You are not here long.” -Walker Evans

Fluvanna

Well its about time to start keeping up with this thing. I guess I could start by taking the opportunity to post photos that I have been promising to post for months now! These photos were taken last summer on my grandparents land in Fluvanna, Tx. One of the best suggestions I have ever been given is to photograph your grandparents whenever you get the chance. So I finally made that my priority during one of my trips back home. I got to spend some time with what might be the best grandparents in the whole world, AND got a few great photos that my whole family has really enjoyed. My grandfather really loves this place and I think his pride really shows in these photos. The foggy day makes it a little hard to see the real beauty of the land, but it did make for a nice ambiance. These photos turned out to be pretty great Christmas gifts too!