Final Project

Two: Character Profile

Meet Koji: he travels the country in to promote the Resolve Tour – an advocacy group for victims of the Lord’s Resistance Army.

The LRA is a religious and military force that has prominence in central Africa; principally in Uganda, also in Sudan and the Congo. It has been widely accused of human rights abuses, specifically regarding child soldiers.

The Resolve Tour exists to reduce this violence. The tour consists of musical acts, video screenings, and workshops teaching about both the LRA and Resolve.

I also made some audio recordings of Koji, here paired with the above images:

 

Reading Reflection – Two

Of the artists, it seems there are two: those who capture in an instant a scene, and those that produce over time a panorama. Writers, like Lamott, are certainly of the latter school.

Photographers, – what are we?

A divide here too exists: between the photo single and story. With breaking news, sports, much of life it is the former: make-or-break, one chance. This is further emphasized by the solitary nature of the single: there is no context to be had.

Lamott’s anecdotes about her second book is much more like a photo story: individual passages / individual photos are used to represent a story, and what story is told can vary drastically based upon small edits within the photos.

Writers have a unique advantage in that they are the ultimate creator within their respective books: each minute detail is at their disposal. For the photographer, a unique challenge is presented: many episodes in life will happen only once, and if the event is not captured it cannot be reconstructed.

When Lamott broke down in her editor’s New York office, she was still given the chance to go back to her lonely writer’s garret and compose the intermediate words. Although this allows for much more finesse to exist within written works, I find the photographer’s position more enjoyable: the rush that exists while operating under stress and constraints tests my very instincts.

This stress isn’t always enjoyable, and quite frequently it would be nice to fly off to an apartment as Lamott described – but this is the curse of life: oh, it is relentless!

When do you stop? When you’re told to stop, when you can’t contribute any more to you or your subject, when you can’t work because you’re dead.

Picture Story No.1: Plays by women, plays for women.

 

Five plays, written by five women, were performed at the third-annual “Short Women’s Play Festival,” run by the Columbia Independent Actor’s Theatre. Here, Brook Underwood reads from the script of “Sex Lessons,” whose playwright – Claudia Barnett – attended the festival.

 

Costumes and accessories were carefully attended to before the performances, as here Beth Yates views into a looking glass.

 

Beth Yates, Kelly Washatka, and Brook Underwood dance during a performance of “Public Proposals.”

 

Shadows fall on the stage inside Launer Auditorium, the Columbia College theater where the festival was performed, on February 17, 18, and 19, 2011.

 

Of the seven actors who performed, five were women. Approximately fifty people watched this performance of “Public Proposals” on February 19, as Beth Yates, Moses Weathers, Kelly Washatka, Joshua Johnson, and Brook Underwood appear on stage.

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This story was an absolute pleasure to shoot. The people were fun and engaging to work with – as actors, I would rightly think so – and provided ample room in which I could operate.

Technically, I found a few difficulties. That most of my photographs were of people under spotlights, I had to contend with massive amounts of contrast and easily clipped shadows and highlights. While I did not pull away perfect – even in my final edit, some of the photographs are missing data – I am satisfied with the end result. Each day I am becoming more and more convinced that a 35/85 lens pair is the perfect operating kit for me.

The Columbia Independent Actors Theatre‘s Third-Annual Short Women’s Play Festival.

With special thanks to Emily Rollie, Artistic Director of IAT, the cast members: Joshua Johnson, DeeDee Folkerts, Sally Foster, Emma Olson, Brooke Underwood, Kelly Washatka, Moses Weathers, Beth Yates, and the rest of the Independent Actors Theater crew.

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I’ll be posting all my personal posts to my personal blog, haugsby.wordpress.com. You should check it out!

Preview: “twenty-four hour story”

Told to find a story, then shoot it in 24 hours. I cheated – slightly – in that I shot over two twelve-hour periods (Thursday and Saturday eves.). What is it about? Let me show you:

what is this? words on a page?

and who here lurks – all women, no doubt?

Not entirely.

an audience, perhaps – those willing to pay for the privilege

 

In attendance too: the playwrights, come from out-of-state

 

Musn’t forget to dim the house lights.

Showtime!

diptychs, triptychs, and that extra dimension that connects photos

I like diptychs, and admit to having produced a few myself – and by “a few,” I mean fewer than 10.

 

I think I did particularly well with this one:

and perhaps this one:

 

and then my photo class got around to talking about diptychs in contemporary photography. Some said they were “common,” others “overused;” I suppose it’s all the same sentiment. Rats, I thought – maybe viewers didn’t think my photos looked as great as I did.

Oh well.

Where’s this going? What’s it all mean? I rearranged my room yesterday / this morning, and in the aftermath I think I’ve found myself another diptych. This is now the vantage from my couch. Kind of.

 

self-indulgence:

you should check out my Vimeo

“This is why photographers shouldn’t do magazine layouts”

Class assignment time. We were given photos of another’s take, and told to make a story and layout from it. Wooooboy, let’s see how this one goes.

…

Here are the individual images we – me and fellow classmate Rob Bratney – chose for our story:

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And here is a sketch of the layout:

There is no title on the sketch, but I think “Trophy Daughter” seems fitting.

Nocturnal, Pt.2

Results: success!

To expand on the last post: Mark likes to make music, under the moniker “MRK WYT;” his buddies like to film his exploits. When they described all of this to me, complete with a music video of his latest smash hit, I was hooked. What a fantastic group.

Then they decided to do some impromptu recording. Even better.

Unfortunately, I was without camera or recording equipment. Fortunately, one of Mark’s roommates let me borrow her D80 – thanks, Kayla! – and I used my phone to record audio. The results are less than ideal, but frankly preferable to no documentation.

I can’t wait to keep working with these guys.

Here’s my take from the night: