Take A Picture, It'll Last Longer
In this second unit for our journalism class, we got to learn more about what it takes to get the perfect picture as a photojournalist. We looked through the heartbreak and destruction of images taken all over the world during natural disasters, war, famine, and during drought. All were difficult to look at and deal with but the time came when we were given the assignment to reflect on all that we'd learned about photography and put it to writing of our own. The project was to interview someone we know that we thought would have an interesting view on what the meaning of life was. After the interview, you take a photo of your interviewee in a pose that they think reflects their life well.
I chose my dad as my interviewee as I thought that he always had a more reflective way of thinking. And after a few years in quarantine, jumping from job to job I thought it would be interesting to see what he had to say after he had had such a rough time.
The interview was the easy part. My dad was born in St. Louis in 1966 to a family of three older siblings and relatively middle class. He walked me through memories of his life in college and finding my mom; how his perception so thoroughly changed after he began a family and that what was beginning to matter more and more was the happiness of his family and the people around him more than focusing on himself. "Particularly because we started later; I was the youngest of four children and had a pretty sizable gap between me and my closest sibling it being almost four and a half years, I was probably relatively spoiled growing up and I don’t think I was overtly selfish but looking back at my young adulthood I was surely more self-centered because I just didn’t have the need to really focus on others as much." The spectrum of what's defined as good and evil was talked through and what was landed on was that it was a spectrum, people may live out their lives doing completely selfless things that might be fulfilling to them but others might not actually be helping much at all and still think they're contributing.
There was a point where the question "Is there a meaning of life?" came up but then was swiftly brushed to the side although I think it is an interesting sentiment to reflect on. As it was said earlier in the interview it's all about perspective. How can we really know what we're here for and why, as we grow we all seem to come to one conclusion or another and just move on but is it a question that needs something more in-depth? It's crazy to think how one's perception changes over the course of their life whether aimed toward the benefit of others or themselves.
As more questions were asked and answers were given all the same the time came to wrap up the interview and reflect on the answers that had been stated before. A prompt for what the photo should look like came up and he responded with "I'd like to be posed looking something over". As a few days passed and ideas had been cut short because of time constraints he had the idea to capture him in his space at the back table of the house. This is where he had basically worked the past three years and what had become the reality of his day-to-day as he worked for brand managing on projects, answered emails, listening to music, read the news, and everything else. It was important for me at least to capture the truth above all else and this was just that. Working and living have never been the same from three years ago and still continue to be in that awkward space of "well, where do we take this now?".
The camera used was one of an iPhone 7, captured on shutter speed ISO 25 for how fast the picture was taken and is framed with a perspective looking down at my dad and his work with his journal sat closely next to him with a wide f/1.8 aperture for how big the lens was opened. If I were using the rule of thirds he would probably be split between the second and third sectors, him being split between the bottom right four squares. The way I framed it I wanted to bring attention down almost like we were about to look over the computer screen at what he was typing. I didn't edit the photo at all, I kept the harsh lighting he'd be working with and how it illuminates the color of the wood. The focus is what I would change if anything in this photo, if I could obscure the back windows so you couldn't see me in the reflection and bring more focus to the table and his face it could be way better.
So what was my dad's meaning of life really? To quote right from the recording he said "In an effort to try to be a little bit more positive, and altruistic I would say that the meaning of life is to try to leave the world in a better place than where you found it.” And that's how I see the question too. You have to be constantly working on bettering yourself so that you can give that version of yourself back to the community. "It's a moral obligation to take what you see and try to help it," my dad says, that's just being human.
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