Experiment 1
Proposal
For my first experiment, I plan on creating a photo essay. As a dancer, writer, and creator, the intersection of text and visual art is very compelling, and I want to find ways other than dance of translating my writing into physical art. Because my roommate has a nice camera and I even just have an iPhone with a good camera, I think this experiment would make sense to be done first. I plan to explore what sustained trauma might mean to a dancer: so often our worth is measured by ourselves and others by our physical appearance and ability. How does sustained physical trauma translate mentally in the short and long term? How does the literal act of climbing on each other for a piece and the metaphorical act of climbing on each other for competition in casting impact how a person thinks and behaves? These are some of the questions I am considering in this first experiment.
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Proposal
For my first experiment, I plan on creating a photo essay. As a dancer, writer, and creator, the intersection of text and visual art is very compelling, and I want to find ways other than dance of translating my writing into physical art. Because my roommate has a nice camera and I even just have an iPhone with a good camera, I think this experiment would make sense to be done first. I plan to explore what sustained trauma might mean to a dancer: so often our worth is measured by ourselves and others by our physical appearance and ability. How does sustained physical trauma translate mentally in the short and long term? How does the literal act of climbing on each other for a piece and the metaphorical act of climbing on each other for competition in casting impact how a person thinks and behaves? These are some of the questions I am considering in this first experiment.
Genre Analysis
The photo essay as a genre was originally brought about and made popular because of two technological advances: halftone printing and the hand-held camera and 35mm film. The hand-held camera made photography much more accessible and easy to use, and halftone printing made it possible for magazines and newspapers to print clear and sharp pictures. Because of magazines such as LIFE, photojournalism in America was quickly spread and popularized, and as new improvements were made in technology, printing, and online news forms, photo essays rose in prominence.
A photo essay is essentially a collection of images that when, put together, tells a story, makes a point, or acts as proof to a larger argument. It can be just the pictures, or the pictures accompanied by captions, or the pictures with a full essay. In a culture with cameras tucked into their pockets, the value of photographs is easily forgotten. However, I am hoping to explore how photographs can serve as a way to highlight things that might go unseen.
My first model is Humans of New York. While this project relies heavily on social media like Instagram and Facebook, I am looking less at the format of the project and more at the content. I especially like how the captions for each are never the author talking, but the subject of the photograph telling his or her own story. Maybe the photographer acts as a sort of curator and chooses which part to post, which might be in service of a greater narrative. I am especially interested in how the photographer uses surroundings to tell more parts of that person’s narrative, especially when the picture does not show the subject’s face.
My second models are two dance photo essays published by the New York Times, called “Redefining the Ballet, 50 years later” and “Two Very Young Dancers, Living the Nutcracker Dream.” I am interested in these because of the way they capture movement, but not in a stereotypical sense. In most of dance photography, the photographer aims to catch the dancer at the height of his or her beauty: the top of a leap, the end of an extension. However, I take inspiration from these models that capture dancers off stage and off guard, where they are not hiding behind costumes and make up and jewelry, but having an offstage moment of being human. That is what I am most interested in during my experiment
Sketch Draft
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Interview dancers in the Department of Dance about their most recent or impactful injuries/bruises
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If I chose to make this into a longer project, I think I would want to have 2-3 pictures per subject, but because of the scope of this experiment, I just tried to focus on one picture per person.
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Record what each dancer says about their injury: where they got it, how they feel about it, how it impacts them and their performance.
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Eventually, I want to create a narrative with the pictures and quotes I use, but realistically I’m not sure if I’ll be able to do that this time around. I hope to have a very down to earth tone.
Sample
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Reflection
This was one of my first times behind the camera, rather than in front of it or onstage. I found that having to direct and frame these shots was a lot like writing—having to edit and revise the pictures in the taking of them was very challenging. I wasn’t sure how to take these pictures so that a dancer’s perspective would make sense to those who didn’t know a lot about a dancer’s lifestyle. I think I would be interested in exploring more permanent and serious “sustained traumas”: how injuries have shaped and changed my professor’s careers, how my classmates who have had to deal with major surgeries have had to adapt and change their mindsets. I also would want to explore the idea of permanence to a dancer: our bodies don’t last forever, but we continue to, in a way, traumatize it to do what we love. I think if I return to this experiment for my final project, that is the direction I would go.
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Reflection
This was one of my first times behind the camera, rather than in front of it or onstage. I found that having to direct and frame these shots was a lot like writing—having to edit and revise the pictures in the taking of them was very challenging. I wasn’t sure how to take these pictures so that a dancer’s perspective would make sense to those who didn’t know a lot about a dancer’s lifestyle. I think I would be interested in exploring more permanent and serious “sustained traumas”: how injuries have shaped and changed my professor’s careers, how my classmates who have had to deal with major surgeries have had to adapt and change their mindsets. I also would want to explore the idea of permanence to a dancer: our bodies don’t last forever, but we continue to, in a way, traumatize it to do what we love. I think if I return to this experiment for my final project, that is the direction I would go.