Final Project Proposal

I officially SUCK at posting blog posts. It takes me forever to remember to do them. Anyway, here is my final project proposal as follows:

I would like to have a series of photographs involving my house (SC 14), which includes myself, Gen Goerling, Sarah Bastien, and Florence Bastien. We have all known each other for awhile (21 years for the twins, 8 years for Gen and I, and 4 for Gen and the twins, and myself and the twins). In the past 4 years, we've really learned a lot about each other, and as graduation is quickly approaching, we want to really preserve the time we have together. We are all going in our own separate directions--Gen is moving to Glasgow, Scotland; Florence is moving in with her boyfriend in Kansas City, MO, Sarah is staying here for the MAT program, and I am moving back to Baltimore for a bit until I get a job (I'm looking at the research triangle in NC, and some places here in MD). This is the first time I won't be able to see Gen on a regular basis (we went to high school together, plus living together) and she's horrible at staying in touch through email, facebook, IM, etc. Florence and Sarah haven't really been separated much (other than one semester abroad) and now they're going to be living about 3000 miles away from each other. As sisters who did everything together, this is a really big deal.

As a result, I want to photograph (and have been photographing) the four of us interacting as a group, in groups of 3, with just two of us, and individual portraits. In this way, we get our own personalities in the pictures, as well as our relationships coming through (hopefully!). One place I've been taking these photographs is the Garden of Remembrance (yes, there is meaning there...) in part because of the idea of "remembrance" with our final days together, because there is this one huge tree there that we'd go to to talk a lot (I remember those late night talks underneath it, ha!) and it also serves as a fairly plain backdrop where we all can interact with our environment in our own way, that has a bit more meaning for us than say, the studio. I mean, Gen in particular is in love with the outdoors (due to allergies, my relationship and Florence's tend to be more of a love-hate relationship, but still we tend to really like the outdoors and spring days) so I feel like we'd open up better in a spot that is very familiar to us.

Ideally, I would like the five pictures to be one of the four of us interacting, then three of us, then two, and then one, with the final picture being a single shot of the tree on its own. The decrease in numbers kind of signifies how happy/excited we were when we all met each other, but even though we are still friends, we've kind of drifted away a lot (especially Flo and I after rooming together...) which I feel would be some of us drifting out of the pictures, disappearing, etc. The tree has the representative quality of being a symbol for life, new beginnings, hope, etc. as well as a large blockade getting in the way, dwarfing you, etc. due to its sheer size.

Depending on how they come out, I might do individual portraits of each of us (reluctantly including a self-portrait...I felt so freaking vulnerable in front of the camera!) with the final of the four of us.

I took about 5 rolls of film of the four of us interacting in different ways and individual portraits, that at this point I just need to look at the pictures to decide how exactly I want to portray it. It could end up being kind of sad, with the dwindling numbers, or I could reverse it, with all of us kind of "meeting" each other there at the tree/St. Mary's with the numbers increasing. I could do portraits, or groups of two. It could be really happy/hopeful, or kind of sad with all of us leaving. I'm not quite sure of the tone I want to create out of the pictures yet.

Feedback would be helpful!