Response #4
Pine point was an incredible interactive documentary that told a story of a mining town in Canada that was abandoned shortly after being developed. The town was later shut down and was suspiciously deleted from maps. This form of documentary allowed the audience to gather more text information while also providing traditional documentary films. This form of storytelling is effective for stories that have a lot of exposition and allows the audience to gather more text information while also providing traditional documentary films. The individual experiences were well told as each page allowed for each families’ documentary film to be shown. The feeling of each page with photos was very nostalgic, the artist used old family photos in a collage manner along with blurbs of text, which felt very personal and relatable. The use of photos in each slide of this documentary was powerful and significant for telling the story. The artist also utilized animation to give life to photos and text blurbs. This is powerful for telling the story of the people that lived in this town. The emotions and feelings were well portrayed. They felt like family members with their own problems and lifestyles. Telling relatable stories is something that I strive for in my works while also showing different perspectives. I believe that people become more compassionate and unified when they are exposed to different perspectives. I chose works that reveal lived experiences of people in poverty to show what economic disparity looks like in America.
Response #3
Lauren Greenfield was a documentary photographer that captured photos for national geographic. She captured photos of people and cultures. The photo highlighted in this article is of high school students at the beach for a senior beach day and appears to highlight the culture of southern California, which seems to be one of glitz, glamour, and physical appearance. This way of photography is significant to documentary as it strives the capture the people anthropologically and truthfully. I would like to dabble in documentary photography practice in my works. Basing my photography off of reality, and revealing truth, whether it is unbias, journalistic documentation of truth, or my truth. I find that telling my own story to be the most difficult. I feel like I know my history but I don't know myself. This mental block is something that I wich to overcome, as I believe that I can expose people to unique perspectives. The exposure of new perspectives brings people closer together rather than apart and oftentimes can lead to healing from the artist and the audience alike.
The reading by Toni Morrison explores this idea of perspectives. Toni tells a story of her imagining a woman that she saw for 15 mins fishing near a creek. This woman was never seen again. She speaks of how her past experience shaped her perspectives and current experiences. This is similar to how I assumed the personality and lives of people in the photo by Lauren Greenfield without even know them personally. This is something that can be fixed by exploring people's stories and perspectives. I also believe that many people assume my story but I think I do that to other people as well. My own thoughts and experience shape my perspectives of others. This is one thing that I hope to amend in my work by exploring different cultures and backgrounds.