Friday, April 22, 2011

Blog Prompt #26

These will be out of order, but this is the order that I thought about them in:

6) If I had unlimited time and resources, I would love to have my cousins in full costume, but the costumes, although fairy-tale in design, would be made from the same bright, patterned fabrics as the t-shirts and jackets we wore as kids, since to us, we WERE wearing the regal accouterments and armor that the rulers of our imaginary world would wear. I would source old family photos, and make costumes from there. I would also try to build models of the various castles and forts, which I would combine into photos of the actual area where we imagined such places.

5) I really want to do a good job on this project, because it holds a lot of sentimental value for both me and my family. When we were kids, "Benselot" (As we dubbed it, playing off my cousins' last name of Bensel) was real to us, and we spent nearly every day after school and entire summers inventing stories, making characters, and playing in this world, which encompassed the entire farm and woods surrounding my uncle's house. When we were playing in this world, we had power, we had wisdom--in short, we were everything we hoped we'd become as adults, and even then, we imagined that we were adults. To return to this place, AS adults, will be interesting....did we become who we hoped we'd be?

4) Imagination, childhood, lore, innocence, memory, history, time, growth, decay, hope, childhood fear, mystery, dreams, nature, shadows, returns, roles, nostalgia, stories, wonder

12) If I removed people from this project, it would become much more about decay and the passing of time, rather than of memory and a return to wonder. In fact, the project would probably change entirely. In my opinion, it really needs the people. The people make it.

1) One negative thought I've had about the project is that it will become so personal that it will only have meaning for me, and no one will understand the allusions I make. I guess the opposite thought is that by not understanding specific allusions, the viewer will be struck more by overall impression, and the images will become universal in that way. I will concentrate on making strong visual images, so that, whether the allusions are understood or not, the images will still be effective.

2)The opposite of my project would be to concentrate on the lives of my family now in our various separate spheres, instead of the sphere we all shared in childhood. It would have to concentrate on the mundane, the unexceptional...the dull aspects of the reality of our daily lives. It could be interesting to make diptychs showing our lives now with what we imagined we would be, or what our role was in that childhood world.

3) A consistent theme will definitely be nature. Our world was almost entirely outdoors, and the creatures we imagined that populated this world were all nature-beings. The complete opposite would be something metallic or industrial.....which I could actually include quite easily because the forest we played in was often used as a dumping ground for old trucks and farm equipment. In our imaginations, we didn't see these, but the photos would obviously show them.

10) I assume that it will probably rain, and I'm going to have to find another way to take these photos. The photo that I have the strongest image in my mind about might not be possible if my uncle got rid of his goats. The pictures might turn out blurry too. BUT, to reverse these assumptions, the weather could be perfect, they could still have goats at the farm, and my shutter speed will be fast enough to cut out the blur. I assume it'll be difficult for my cousins to get into character after all these years, but hopefully we'll have enough time that it will be relaxing and fun for them.

7) In its simplest form, this project is a series of childhood vignettes. It's like taking a collection of toys and photographing them, or a picture of a child's room.

16) I love the idea of this being a narrative. I think I would have to include the same people in each image. I could show one of my cousins making a journey through the farm, making stops at every important landmark, talking to the "inhabitants" (i.e. my brother in various roles).


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