Project Proposals

Idea One

Abandoned- My first idea revolves around the subject of abandoned houses and other human structures that were once occupied, or had the intention of holding or housing people. I find the structure and nature of abandoned human structures fascinating, what they hold inside, if anything, and their exterior structure, how they affect the land and how the land affects it. I would like to go about capturing the photographs in a very straight forward manner, by photographing the structure itself inside and out. I am currently torn on how i wish to portray the body of work, and as of now, i wish to both print and mount photographs as well as having video of my experiences and of the houses side by side, because i think they would both supplement each other. As far as execution for this project, i believe it will hold both components of ease and accessibility, where other structures will be more difficult to access, perhaps even tread the line of illegal trespassing. I believe i will have regular access to one or more of these structures, seeing as they stay put and do not move location to location or have any changing agendas. However, some houses i have in mind that i wish to photograph do require some lengthy travel to reach.

The significance of this project derives from my personal fascination of abandoned houses and stems to more important issues of how they interact with the land and with people, and ultimately the character they take on after they have been vacated. I plan to develop the project with a time-based element that will require constant documenting of some structures, and document how they change and morph over the changing seasons. I may even choose to do some very, very long (weeks to months) pinhole photographs of certain structures. I would like to photograph these structures at any and all hours of the day and night and witness the different characters they take on. I expect that there can be obstacles and trials to this project, perhaps legality being one of them, as well as straight up being terrified of some of these places, i plan to have at least one other person there with me...at least at night. As for costs, i can not imagine it will cost too much, seeing as i already have my digital camera, tripod, various lenses, some lighting equipment (that i do not forsee needing). I do forsee costs in printing, gas money to drive places, and other small costs such as making various pinhole cameras. Overall, i am very excited about this project, i believe i will find new components about my fascination with abandoned houses/structures to develop and perhap reveal to me aspects that i have never known before, and i am more than excited to share this with an audience.

Rodeo- My other idea has become almost equally as fascinating to me the more i have thought about it. There is a culture of rodeo that springs up in small pockets here and there, mostly in the southwest, that hosts an incredibly diverse and peculair group of peoples. From the "performers" to the "athletes" to the crowd and surrounding people it draws, the rodeo culture is a very fascinating one. With a long history behind it, traditions can be seen all around. There are so many aspects to a single rodeo, however, that i find it would be hard to narrow it down to one, or a few. My method of capture would be to go with my digital camera and try to capture the action, as well as the people in stills. As in the other project, i believe i would want to capture and print photographs to portray the stillness that people may not necessarily see at such events.

I believe this project could be much more difficult in many different ways. First of all, the project would be incredibly event based, and the events themselves would dictate when and where i would be photographing. Having looked at the list of rodeos in Arizona this season, there are one to two every month in various locations around the state. Also adding to the costs of transportation would definately be admittance fees and other costs. Knowing that i would want access and availability to more intimate settings and shots, i would perhaps look into getting a press pass or back stage pass of sorts to gain access to more variety of photographs. This project would require of me a lot more effort and time and committment to the events. Overall, this project may be one that i wish to take on at a later point in my line as a photographer, once i can become more comfortable with my camera in such overwhelming situations, and once i can become more comfortable taking portraits of people. This project does really excite me and hold a lot of interest to me, and i would, at one point or another, love to photograph such subject matter.