Channeling Eggleston

In setting up this assignment, I spent days pondering where would be the best location for the shoot. I wanted a three block radius that had enough variety that my photographs would be different, a space that meant something to me personally, and a space that would not be too crowded considering I would need to take the same path over and over. I chose a neighborhood street my mom lives on in the suburban town I grew up in. A space familiar to me from walks with our dog and other adventures with my camera. I knew it would not be too populated and I was already drawn to the architecture and stark light contrast I knew I could capture. I was not expecting how tiring my 3 city blocks would be on a slight incline. Although not many people were around, I found that I was very self concious around the people who were. It reminded me of being a child, running around our neighborhood playing with my sister and my cousin, or taking photographs as a high schooler with my first film camera. I felt an ownership of space at that time that has faded with an awareness of other's property and anticipation of confrontation. 

​

Beginning my shoot, I quickly realized that I was shooting images that I had imagined in my mind, being familiar with the path, but I was not actually observing my surroundings. I was reminded of critiques to change my angles and aperture openings to convey intentional decisions. Especially towards the end of this assignment as I felt my legs tire from walking and my mind drift to what I wanted for dinner, I challenged myself to take more images and to continue to focus on pieces of the landscape I may not have noticed previously. I chose to shoot around 4PM because I knew the sun would be lowering in the sky and casting a golden hue through the already yellow leaves in the neighborhood. While in reality this created a fall wonderland for my shoot that filled me with joy, it also created high contrast light that challenged me to test out spot metering and forced me to slow down with my shooting even more.

​

Overall I enjoyed this structured assignment and I look forward to practicing the exercise again - maybe in a more populated area or in my current neighborhood. Watching the William Eggleston documentary in conjunction with this assignment filled me with an excitement to create, an urge to create more, and an ache for the physicality of film processing. I remember going to see his show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and standing in front of his image of a tricycle for so long all of my friends left me there. I was enamored by the casual air of his framing, the vibrant colors, and the normalcy. At the time his work inspired me to shoot everything and anything and I would like to return to that free creative mindset.