I have only been seriously photographing for about three years now. I've been forming a method over the years, but that doesn't mean I haven't been open to new ways of photographing. I will say, my interest in photographing people has only grown stronger. I thouroughly enjoy learning about all different types of people and their relationship to the world, and my relations to them. I have ventured into landscapes, but photographing people is more appealing to me. I like setting up portraits that best describe a person. There are times where I have a clear cut vision of what I want my photograph to look like, but if we can picture it, why even photograph it? Mostly, I like collaborating with my subject. I believe in most situations, it's important to see what the person you are photographing is capable of. Of course, I then structure it and capture how I view the person I'm photographing.  If I don't have a strong relationship with my subject, this helps me establish a relationship. This develops a level of comfort which I think is the most important thing between a photographer and his or her subject. I want to set up photographic situations that portray the psychological aspect of an individual. I have been familiarizing myself with Diane Arbus' work all semester. I love how she photographs people that are socially abnormal, but captures them in such a powerful way. She stops us in real life to look at a photograph, a moment that has passed. They are such strong images, that the viewer must look at them. I also am interested in Justine Kurland. I want to incorporate both styles of photography into the rest of this semester. I love the fantastical aspect that Justine Kurland incorporates into her photographs and the psychological aspect diane Arbus incorporates in her photographs. I love the way Arbus captures someone in their natural state of being. She tells the truth through her photographs, but I love the way Justine captures the dreamy aspect of something.

I recently checked out Diane Arbus' book "Revelations" from the library. Not only has this helped me get a better understanding of Arbus' work, but I was able to see what her contact sheets looked like. In some of her contact sheets, she takes multiple photographs of subjects in the same composition but different emotions in each frames. In other contact sheets, there are about three frames per subject and then it's on to the next subject matter. The book shows different approaches of how she photographs although the subject is consistent. I really admire that because I am still figuring out different ways of photographing when using film since it is much more valuable than digital. 

As I said in my last blog post, I have been planning out this photograph I want to make that was inspired by Justine Kurland's artist lecture. I have started collecting a bunch of baby dolls that I want to place around the woods and create a similar world that Justine Kurland has created for the teenage girl run away world. Instead of making it seem like a peaceful and fearless world, I want to show how horrible it could be. I want to show how the girls who run away might actually feel. I am going to make the dolls really dirty and broken up because dolls are usually like a security blanket. The dolls will represent the girls who ran away and are just as broken as they are.  I want to show the psychological, fantastical world that is inspired by these two artists. I am not sure if I want to make a series of photograph of this particular theme or just a photograph that fits in a more general theme.