I am always torn between the sciences and humanities. Throughout high school, my grades were typically slightly better in humanities, yet I found myself extremely interested in the natural sciences. I love writing, drawing and creative expression, and I love studying deep time and large-scale concepts. I have found a way to pursue many of my interests and discover new ones with earth science, as I am majoring in geology. I am a writing associate on campus, as I love helping others develop writing skills as well as further my own. I am undecided on a minor, considering anthropology, writing, or possibly documentary if I have enough time at this point. In terms of career goals, I hope to combine my passions for both science and humanities in order to become a science ambassador of sorts; one of the people I aspire to be like is, for example, Carl Sagan.

As I am largely interested in issues of earth science and bringing the scientific truth to the public, I think documentary is of utmost importance in the current climate. Especially after my research project on the Easton dam last semester, I have a few topics I would like to pursue in this area, such as the shad question posed earlier. I also would be interested in other topics of environmental concern in the Lehigh Valley that combine geology and anthropology, humanity and the natural world.

Documenting something means creating a record of it, in print or film or audio or other media forms, that tells its story in what is hopefully a truthful way. While I have little to no legitimate film experience, I did recently document my time studying geology in Iceland this summer. I brought my go pro camera along with me, and took videos of glaciers studied, trails hiked, volcanoes summited, and friends made along the way. I subsequently created a video compilation of the trip. I also documented our spring season on the crew team last year with a similar compilation, videos taken from the stand on the shells from spring training until our championship regatta. I enjoy filming and compiling such videos, and look forward to the one I plan to create this spring on my semester of sailing and studying marine science. Through these videos, I find I am able to express the emotions felt during the events, and the overall feel of the experience, in order to share it with others.

I also enjoy researching topics of local importance with global importance, and I wish to pursue more stories in this area. Thus far I have only done so for course assignments. Last semester, I wrote my final essay for my course Culture & the Environment on the Easton dam near the convergence of the Lehigh and Delaware Rivers. I did field research that included photography, video and audio. The culmination of this was a paper on the underrated danger of small-scale dams. I highly enjoyed this project, and wanted to pursue parts of it further; to what specific extent has this affected the shad in the rivers? That was but one of many questions I had at the end of my research.

In addition, I am an avid writer. While this method of documentation does not include any media other than print, I have kept journals and written of important thoughts and decisions my entire life. I solved many challenges in my life by organizing my thoughts by means of the written word; I had a speech impediment when I was younger, and so writing was the easiest and most direct form of self-expression.

As documentary is rooted somewhat in journalism and photography, it is to be expected that some bias exists. While the documentarian, journalist, or photographer attempts to bring to light the truth of an issue, their innate bias inevitably comes through somewhat in their art. In the preface, McClane states that this book focuses on documentary film of the Western world. She acknowledges her own innate bias, saying “I am bound by my own understanding of the world” (xiv.) McClane brings up as fact that documentaries are “limited to actuality” (3.) I personally have immense respect for documentaries because they are “purposive,” (7) not simply for entertainment and money. It is idealistic, however, to believe that because documentaries are intended for truth, they are entirely accurate.

I wrangled with Robert Flaherty during this reading, and contemplated two questions consistently.

First, what amount of Flaherty’s alterations were intentional, meant to help Westerners better empathize?

Second, is it at all acceptable for people like Flaherty to alter customs and lifestyles in this way, for what they perceive as purposed for education?

McClane introduces Flaherty as “an explorer” (21), an undisciplined potential “genius” “in love with the wilderness” (22.) She then discusses his struggle and hard work and dedication to bringing the truth to light. He is portrayed as different from the rest of the public who just sought “stars” (26) in their films. After reading this section, I held respect for Flaherty.

I quickly began to doubt Flaherty, however, when he decided what to disregard and to include, exaggerate, or even go so far as to create, in the construction of his films. His creation of the “nuclear family structured along conventional Western cultural lines” (29) in non-Western societies struck me. Flaherty also “revived” (27) a native Samoan custom solely for the purpose of his film. He changed their way of life for his film; it was not the entire truth. However, according to McClane this was (at least in part) intentional, in order to help the Western societies better relate to these cultures.

In addition, McClane says, “Flaherty may ultimately have been most concerned with the human spirit, but what he chose to show are its basic physical manifestations. He pays no attention to how his societies govern themselves, nor is there anything in his films about the spiritual life of the people” (31.)

McClane does say that Flaherty was never condescending to the subjects of his films (34.) She seems to almost dismiss his negative actions on the basis that he was not an anthropologist (34.) Documentarians can be many other things additionally, whether a journalist, photographer, student, or professional of some kind; when analyzing their work, however renowned, it is imperative to take bias into consideration.

In one of my classes, Mat 33, which is a material science class, we essentially have been studying the makeup and the components of atoms and molecules. We break up the particles into its unit value to try to understand its physical and chemical properties. This frame assignment felt a lot like the material science class. My frame was made from one of my take-out lunch containers with a peephole slightly larger than an eye ball.  The big picture was zoomed in to a minuscule frame. Seeing everything through the frame felt almost as if pieces were missing. I could only really analyze each piece of the puzzle one at a time. With those pieces though, I was able to connect it all together, which led me to be able to imagine the big picture.

Interestingly enough, I never really considered myself a documentarian because I’ve never made a documentary. I am, in a sense, a documentarian because I have shared pictures and videos with friends and family though social media. Said documentation usually regards to something I’ve done or saw, that I wanted to share with others. I don’t post frequently though, like some people I know who share every meal and every activity 24/7. Personally I think that is excessive, and in a sense takes away from enjoying the moment itself. Whenever I share those moments I feel as though if at least one person appreciates whatever I’ve shared, then it is a valid post. It was something worth posting.

Lauren and I went forward with this project sort of haphazardly. We decided to get right down to it and take the pictures first, without getting to know each other first like the other groups did. However, through taking the pictures we learned things about one another. For example, Lauren is an Environmental Science major, so she took a picture hugging a tree as an ode to her personal connection with nature. I, on the other hand, love food and wanted to take a picture in front of a vending machine… which doesn’t say very much about me. But it began a discussion about how I had done a similar activity in my other FAMS class earlier that day. This led to a conversation about majors, and classes we were taking this semester, which helped us get to know one another. We may have done with project in a different way, but we achieved the same goal as the other groups.

When I was doing the framing assignment, I was with a fellow classmate and I have to admit that I still felt silly walking around campus peering through a cardboard frame. Once I got used to it, I understood why we were assigned to do so. One frame can tell an entirely different story than another, even if the subject remains the same. It helped that my fellow classmate, Grace, had a frame much smaller than mine, because I was able to compare two scenes with differently sized frames. Peering through my frame as I looked at Skillman, I saw the hustle and bustle of a busy, active library with students walking in and out, taking in both the library and its surroundings. Grace, however, had a different perspective, only seeing the building itself, which could have been entirely vacant without knowing school was in session. Both frames had the same subject but told different stories. If grace stepped backwards, however, and took in all the surroundings, it could have been a more similar experience. This is something important to consider when framing a photo or video—what are you including? What are you leaving out? How do those framing choices affect the story you are telling?

I am a Government & Law FAMS double major. The Gov/Law in me sees things in black and white, whereas FAMS reveals my creative half. I think it would be really cool at some point in my career to combine my two disciplines and create a political advertisement, like an attack ad or perhaps a documentary about a politician that I admire.

If I were to tell a story about a place in the Lehigh Valley, it would have to be the Easton Public Market because it’s a cool new spot that is drawing a lot of attention from people in the Lehigh Valley.

In class last Monday, we argued that everyone can indeed be considered a documentarian thanks to technology, more specifically, the iPhone. This point was brought to my attention last year when I was in a class called World Pictures, taught by Professor Groo. We studied the archive and how people archive today, which links to documentary. There is a device called Memoto which brought upon the discussion about how people document their lives today. Memoto is a small camera you attach to yourself which takes a photo every 30 seconds to document your surroundings, and thus, your life. The catch is that you are never actually in any of the photos, which removes you from your own story even though you are the storyteller. This is how I imagine myself as a documentarian. When I document moments of my life, I like to do so without being present in the photo, video, etc. I like to memorialize moments with pictures of my surroundings—family, friends, pets, buildings—things that make the moment special to me. To me, documenting means reminiscence, as I am the kind of person that will scroll through my photos on my phone to get a good laugh and remember some funny times with the people I love.

While framing the world, I thought a lot about the psychological principal of selective attention and how photographs and movies essentially choose where our attention should be put on. Being behind the frame made me realize that sometimes there is a lot more to the world then I can see at one point, and that my experience of the life that I live is just that; my experience. We all physically live in this vast “objective” world, but we actually live in our own version of that world, which is entirely subjective. Looking at the world behind a frame made me want to slow down and “stop and smell the roses” as opposed to hastily rushing everywhere as I normally do. I love sitting in coffee shops and looking out the windows at life that goes by, and this experience felt a lot like that. It is impossible to see everything that happens at once and because of this, in a way, we are always living life while looking through our own version of a cardboard frame.