Calvin Anderson: Look At Me?
"Environments are invisible. Their ground rules,
pervasive structure and overall patterns elude
easy perception"
The Medium Is The Massage - Marshall McLuhan
Media, specifically social media, has created a unique environment. This environment consists of everyone constantly checking their phones. Being more present online than in actual life. Avoiding all human interaction. It is easier to fall into this environment than to have a meaningful conversation, talk to someone standing in line with you, or even make eye contact and wave to someone when passing them.
For my photo album, I wanted to call out the viewer's attention to the use of media as an obstruction to real-life human interaction. If someone were to go on their phone and find their way to my album, they would only be met with strangers looking directly at them. They would be forced into this human interaction that they were avoiding/lacking. I labeled each picture with the name of its subject to try and give the pictures more human characteristics. All of this in the hope that they will see this invisible environment they are stuck in.
Taking the pictures for this album was also a way for me to break out of this environment. I started by going around the building I live in, knocking on doors, and asking people if I could take their pictures. It was really awkward at first, but everyone (almost) was more than happy to help. In these very short, 1-2 minute, conversations I was introduced to a lot of people I have been living right next to but never met. I eventually went downtown and started asking random people there. Again, almost everyone was happy to be a part of this project. Even though I'm not going to become best friends with any of these people (and some of them I will probably never see again) it was a break from avoiding one another and instead actually sharing a brief moment of connection.
You took this project in a really cool direction. I wouldn't have thought involve others so much in what could be a very independent project.
ReplyDeleteI like the similarities in composition and the exposure in all the pictures while offering the differences by the subject themselves. It's also really cool to know that some of the people featured in the project are actually strangers and aquaintances to you.
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