https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwL4Zn7GCrznQ2tZNmJBMGtqNTQ/view

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.