Brain Fittness Debreifing Resonse #2

Today was the start of my journey with my Partner T. He and I both were so excited to get to know each other and to create these photobooks together. Today, T told me about his life and gave a lot of information about his profession. He was a physical therapist for over 20 years and he told me a lot about his journey of becoming and being a physical therapist. Right off the bat we started bonding over our mutual love for PT. I myself am going to school right now to become a physical therapist and he is like a mentor for me. He also shared with me the part of his life that was not his work (which used to take up most of his life). He talked about his wife and told me about how he met her and how they started dating and fell in love. This story was told towards the end of our visit and so for the final minutes we had together I took pictures of the different things that he brought in and we talked about what he should bring in next week. I am really happy with the amount of information I got from T today and I am excited to create these books with him. We are still in the process of deciding what we want the subjects of the books to be and how much information of each aspects of his life we want.

Reading Response: The Photographer's eye , Light and Lens:Photography in the digital age

Both of these essays helped expand my knowledge on photography as a whole and its history in particular. John Szarkowski, author of The photographers eye, started his essay with talking about the radical difference that photography has from all other forms of art. It is completely it own thing. Photography can be practiced by thousands who share no common training or tradition. The author talks about the immortality of the captured moment and how once the picture is taken it is now in the past. I love how he  said that photographs not instant but are time exposures which vary in duration.

 Robert Hirsch, author of  Light and Lens: Photography in the digital age, wrote more about the history of photography and its overall progression. I was so interested in the evolution of the photographic imaging. I though that it was so cool to learn about how past photographers altered their images before the invention of things like Photoshop. I thought it was so interesting how the miniature painters painted directly on the daguerreotypes and calotypes. I cant imagine physically painting each individual picture trying to work on every little detail on such a small canvas. It put things into perspective on how much easier photography is today.

Reading Response: Photography and memory

Many people see photographs as just memories but there is so much to them and these articles have an interesting point on how we manipulate out memories. We the photographers are choosing the exact moment which we want to freeze in time. Sometimes we even edit or move things around in order to change the esthetic of the picture. Yes, this is art but it isn’t a memory because it has been altered and changed. Photographs can bring us back to a certain memory but a photograph its self is not a memory. The author said, “In the case of photographs, we have more power over the process of retaining and forgetting.” This is so true. We have the power to choose what we want to remember about that exact moment and what parts we want to edit out. When I was in Fiji I hiked to the highest point of the island that I was living on and I got to take some amazing photos but the photos that I took were of memories that I wanted to keep. I took photos of the amazing views of the mountains and ocean and I left out the parts like when I had to stop about 5 times to catch my breath or when I was sweating like a pig because of the scorching heat. I chose what parts I wanted to remember and left out the other parts because they were not as pleasant. In several years when I look back to the photos I took all I will remember is how beautiful the views were and I will start to forget about the rest because they were not photographed so I probably will start to forget some of the stories.

Brain Fitness Debriefing Response #1

Going to the facility was such a great experience and I am so excited that I get to go there more. I am very interested in the type of work that the brain fitness club does. The 4 men that we met were excited to hear about our lives and who we are and they were all so excited to just be able to share their experiences that they have had and tell us about their lives. I really think that deep down they have this need to share their knowledge and learnings with others in fear of loosing it themselves. I am really looking forward to working one on one with one of these men to help him solidify these memories in a way that he can keep them and look back to them and help him remember as long as possible. I couldn't imagine going through what the members of brain fitness camp are going through but I am glad that I am going to be able to help someone keep their memories.

Mini Photobook

This little booklet is filled with 19 photos that help to describe me as a person. The order that the photos were placed in the book was strategically done in order to show the different categories that describe me.

I started the booklet off with some fun facts about myself which are my favorite animal: Pigs, and My biggest fears: People in costumes and Butterflies... yes Butterflies. I then continue the booklet with pictures of my family and I. We moved all around the states and the world together which made us a very close family. My dog came with us on all of our adventures and she has been with us for the last 14 years. I then showed a picture of me and my soccer team and another picture of me with my mom who supported me throughout all of my sporting events. Throughout high school I went on many different service trips with my friends, family and school. I got to go to a lot of different countries and work with/meet all kinds of wonderful people. I also traveled a lot while I was living overseas in Geneva, Switzerland and Singapore. I shared some of my favorite travel photos, moments and adventures in this booklet. To end the booklet I talked about my life here at Rollins College. I showed a pictue of my Sorority (AOII) and a picture of my lab partner and I. I am a Biology Major on the Pre-Physical Therapy track and Science classes and labs take up most of my time here.