Environmental Portrait

Emely is a 10 year old fourth grade student at DC Bilingual, a charter school in the Columbia Heights neighborhood of Washington, D.C..  When Emely grows up she wants to be a teacher. After school on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Emely attends Girls on the Run with her best friend, Yessica. At Girls on the Run, Emely participates in warm up activities that include life lessons especially for girls. My first week at GOTR, the girls had to help each other jump into a rotating jump rope and get to the other side. They had to work together to come up with the most efficient way to get all the girls to the other side. Emely, who was confident at jumping rope, helped other girls gain the confidence to jump the rope.

 The following session, the girls worked on an activity related to peer pressure. They learned about different kinds of peer pressure and how to not succumb to peer pressure. Again, Emely was an active participant in the activity. During the other half of the GOTR session, the girls run laps to practice for a 5k race being held at the end of the program for all the GOTR teams in DC. I often saw Emely running with other girls in order to encourage and cheer each other on.

Emely’s favorite thing about Girls on the Run is that she gets to run and give spirit awards to each other at the end of each session. At the end of the program, Emely will participate in a 5k with other girls from DC’s GOTR. Emely’s goal for the race is to cross the finish line around 4^th or 5^th place. She also wants to be and feel healthier by the end of the program. Emely said she will feel happy and that she has accomplished her goal when she crosses the finish line at the end of the race.

GOTR April 14, 2011. Second visit Part 2

GOTR April 14, 2011. Second visit Part 1

Girls on the Run April 12, 2011 First Visit

Afghanistan Il Nodo Del Tempo (book review)

The photographic project “Afghanistan Il Nodo Del Tempo” by Riccardo Venturi is an extensive look at life in Afghanistan. The documentary project opens a window into the more personal side of the country that is often not seen in the media. The photographs were taken from 1996 – 2002, and cover the fall of Kabul to the Talibans, the defeat of Kandahar, and the arrival of American soldiers. A variety of subjects and issues are shown from this time period, including women’s issues and Taliban activity.

            The book opens with a view of a street in Afghanistan. On the surface, a fairly simple photograph, but after taking a longer look many clues are revealed. If you saw this photograph without knowing the title of the project or the context, you would now know the location was somewhere in the Middle East. On the right is a desolate, run down commercial building, which suggests it is a poverty stricken area. On the left is a tall decorative tower, which appears to be on a corner of a wall. Perhaps the wall is keeping people in or out, and it is reminiscent of a wartime structure. In the middle of the photograph are a dog, people, and vehicles. The inclusion of these things shows that life is still going on in this otherwise, rundown looking street. Overall, the opening photograph is a successful introduction to the remaining photographs, both subject-wise, and stylistically.

            The images in “Afghanistan Il Nodo Del Tempo” are dark and moody. There is not a single image in the collection evoking a sense of happiness. The lack of any happy or ‘feel good’ images sends a clear message: the situation in Afghanistan was not good, and the people were not happy. The majority of the photographs are quiet and simple, but they are still informative.

 For example, the photograph of a child sitting at a table with a white sheet over it is an incredibly simple image, but from the image we can infer many things. First, the child is completely alone and there is not even a trace of another person or family being in the area. Secondly, the plain table and barren room show poverty. A closer look at the photograph reveals that the child is looking down in what feels like a very sad and contemplative manner. The photograph could be showing a number of things; a child at school or a child whose parents are out working. In fact, according to the caption, the young girl is at an orphanage. Now this photograph is not simply about a poor child, but it is a poor child with no family at a very under-funded orphanage. This image, along with a similar image showing a woman in an empty room at an asylum, begins to speak about humanitarian issues in Afghanistan. These pictures are not about the Taliban or military presence. These pictures are about the people living in this extremely poor country.

Overall, Riccardo Venturi successfully documented life in Afghanistan during the time period he was there. He showed a variety of daily life activities, as well as the military presence. Venturi’s variety of visuals including close ups, landscapes, and general scenes helps provide a full and complete view of the area. His style and subtle approach to his subject matter ties the images together in a successful documentary project.

Brainfood March 7 2011

Christopher Dawson- Livingston 1995

This photograph by Christopher Dawson is a panoramic view of a family picnic, taken in 1995. This image stood out to me because Dawson captured a quiet, intimate moment. Even though the image is black and white, and distant, I still feel as if I could be there at that picnic. I can feel the slight breeze on a warm day, perfect for an outdoor family picnic. I can hear the sounds of the dog barking, and kids playing, and the adults talking. The panoramic view adds to this feeling of actually being there because it is closer to what the human eye sees verses a normal size photograph. The view brings me around the scene, as I see more and more detail in the image. The image feels effortless, which was not a feeling I was getting from most of the other photographs in the exhibition. This feeling of effortless was also felt from his other photographs in the show.