Project 1c by Sara Nulton
When I look back on this project, I struggle with the right words to say what I saw and missed. There were a few moments when I saw the perfect opportunity to take a photo with my sister. And on my phone, I have about four or five of the same pictures of us trying to pose and make something meaningful. But in truth, those photos aren’t candid, and with that, I don’t think they’re as special to me as some other pictures. I also felt like I couldn’t take photos of the city that truly captured its special meaning. In my opinion, the city itself isn’t just what made this trip. The skyscrapers are so visually appealing, but they aren’t very sentimental.
So throughout this trip, I kept asking myself: What does a sentimental photo really look like? And despite my best efforts, some of the photos only mattered because of the emotion I felt when taking them, but not because they are visually significant. The final photo I have of the city in the distance doesn’t show it, but I was sobbing behind the camera. And in a way, the photos versus the story I tell feel different. I was not doing any justice to the phrase ‘a picture tells a thousand words,’ because the city just felt difficult to capture authentically.
However, I saw so many opportunities to make memories with my sister. Going to that photo booth and taking photos together was perfect because it showed not only us posing for the pictures but also us getting ready and more of our expressions in the moment. But, some can definitely argue that because they are GIFs, they aren’t ‘photos’, which is fair.
I really enjoyed the mystery some stories had, that worked perfectly for their projects. I found it difficult myself to execute the right kind of mystery or anticipation for my project since it’s more built on backstory. However, I tried to give the tiniest bit of mystery with eluding to where our adventures ended up being. I also enjoyed the ‘scrapbook’ style of some projects and how it felt like a photo album. I definitely took inspiration from that and tried to give my project a little scrapbook design with the graphics. And for my future projects, I want to try and branch out from my design ideas and fall into places with new styles.
