Guest Lecture with Jesse Alexander

Working title: Forrest Operations 

Guest Lecture at Falmouth University, April 20th, 2020.

With Jesse Alexander

The Pastoral-Jesse mentioned that in this crisis we are all sort of living a pastoral life now. Often        mythology of the countryside, which is not so much misrepresentation but partial. 

Death- suicide particularly males. 

Elegy- poem or remembrance.


A pastoral elegy, like a poem or a remembrance of mourning, represented in the nature.   

Quotes shared by Jesse Alexander, screenshot by author.

Methodology- shooting a half a roll or so at a time.  Not so rigorous.  Using slide film- which seems natural since it's very indexical of the subject.  Slide is also good for color and it responds to the subtleties of light.  And shooting with a tripod.  The aestheticized territory has both felt risky and liberating for him.  

Interesting that he used the term 'portraits of trees.' But I feel that is accurate after seeing some of the work he shared.  

A fellow student recommended Overstory by Richard Powers as catalyst as a new way to look at trees: 

Find Overstory on Amazon Here:

One last quote shared by Jesse (Screenshot by Author):

A Support Group

I began a social media 'group page' on Facebook as a landing page to collect images from people around the world.  Some were already participating and shared their images, some joined the group to start participating themselves.   I have collected hundreds of images from across the US and also many different countries.

But it has become more than that.

Now it runs as more of a positive support group.

Fig. 1: Image donated to the project from Nibley, Utah, USA.  The Teddy Bear Project of COVID-19.

People aren't just posting images,  they are posting commentary, and responding to each others posts and comments. 

Posting bears that supported someone through previous or current cancer treatments, bears from grown children whom they are currently isolated from, bears with a history, family heirlooms, bears from loved ones in the military, handmade bears created to calm nerves, and so on.  A little bit of their human counterpart in each post.  

Here are some 
screenshots of (unsolicited)posts/comments/thoughts:

I thought I would start this project to have an effect on people as they look back on COVID-19 and how we remember the children during this time- I am pleased that it seems to be having an effect on people right now, as we all survive this craziness together.  

Figure 1. Image donated to the project from Nibley, Utah, USA.  The Teddy Bear Project of COVID-19. Available at: www.TBearProject.com

Progress

Exciting happenings! 

Idaho Family Magazine would like to run an editorial with my Teddy Bear Project of COVID-19 in their next issue of their magazine.  

https://idahofamilymagazine.com



Idaho Family Magazine is a family based magazine with around 20,000 printed copies distributed around the Treasure Valley area, and an online audience as well.  

This would be an excellent opportunity for a 'professional output' for this project.  

Previously I had been planning on a face to face show which is, obviously, not going to happen anytime soon.

Looking at my collection of images, which is daily growing, I would love for them to be part of a physical show sometime in the future, but now see them as being part of a larger show illustrating COVID-19 life, or a collaborative illustrating many points of view.  

I also think a book would be a beneficial output, but not until this COVID-19 sufficiently passes, as the collection is still growing and the outcome should be known before a display along those lines.  

Photography and Who We Are

"Photography is fundamental to the ways we define and understand who we are" (Heiferman 2012:17). Photography also has naturally crossed boundaries from the beginning, "free of historical limits," (Bate 2016). 

Imagery is a universal language, though translations vary with the diverseness of human existence. 

 Fig. 1: Slade 2020

In 'week 1' of my very first module (Positions and Practice) we were introduced to the analogy that photographs can be a window or a mirror.  Some of the very first photographic images ever created contained windows.  

Fig. 2: Slade 2020

In these images we gaze at the 'bear' or other objects gazing out, even as we, the viewer, 'gaze' in.  Both of us separated by two layers of glass, the pane of the window, and the camera lens itself. Reflections also fill the windows with glimpses of the outside world, creating a hint of the subject's actual gaze, and a secondary path for our gaze as the viewers.   

Fig. 3: Image donated to the project by Jeanette Holmes, Rexburg Idaho, USA. 

The Teddy Bear Project of COVID-19 2020.

Occasionally in the reflection there also contains the camera and photographer behind it- increasing the amount of gazes, as we look at them, looking at the bears, who are looking out at the world, and seemingly at us.  

Roland Barthes observed "The more technology develops the diffusion of information... the more it provides the means of masking the constructed meaning under the appearance of the given image" (Barthes in Heiferman 2012:15)

We are left wondering if the owners view any 'constructed meaning' behind these images of their bears.  And when they look back on the images in the distant future, will they construct the meaning differently than in the moment.  Will they perhaps see themselves, or their loved ones, gazing out from behind the glass?  

BATE, David. 2016. 'Global Photography.' Photography: The Key Concepts in Photography. London; Bloomsbury Academic.


HEIFERMAN, Marvin. 2012. Photography Changes Everything. New York; Washington, D. C.: Aperture.