[J7980]Work in Progress 2

For the last week, I spent the Sunday afternoon with the Jackson family at Stephens Lake Park. I'm not a fan of park shots, but I like the photo above a lot because it demonstrates the relationship between Kimberly Matthews and Eugene Jackson. They got divorced but are still a big part of each other's life because of their kids.

Then I spent the Tuesday afternoon with Thomas and his father. They went to the Westlake Ace Hardware to help fix Kimberly's fan. Thomas was very happy that they finally made the fan work again.

Although I didn't get a lot of nice photos from these two afternoons, but I do love just spending time with them, observing what they do, how they live their life, and how they put different pieces of this family together. 

[J7980]Work in Progress 1

This week, I have spent my weekend with the Jackson family. On Saturday, I photographed Kimberly and Malinda having cake decoration class in Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft store. According to Kimberly, this is the time only for her and her daughter.

Malinda is a very energetic kid, who takes every opportunity to do some running and jumping.

Then I spent five hours with the Jackson on Sunday evening, trying to document how Thomas, Malinda and their parents have their day at their house, which is the part I've not photographed last semester.

On Sunday afternoon and evening, Thomas and Malinda rode their bikes outside of the house, played video games for two hours, had showers, ate dinner, had some reading and then went to bed. Sometimes their father Eugene stopped by. 

For next week, I will photograph Kimberly and Eugene when they work and how they interact with their kids more.

[J7980]Character profile: Deith Montgomery

Video: https://vimeo.com/63520113

Self critique:

The character I chose to photograph for this assignment turned out to be an interesting one, whereas photographing him is difficult.

Deith Montgomery, 67, had a stroke about two years ago, but he didn't give up his willingness to live a normal life and walk again like others.

I did get the permission to photograph Deith, and he is a really easy-going person to talk and work with. However,  I just photographed him twice in total.

My plan for this assignment was to photograph Deith and him taking the therapy at the adult connection first and trying to get access to shoot something out of the connection at the same time. My goal after finishing shooting his day at the connection is to take the bus with him and photographing him going home as Deith's son didn't feel comfortable with me photographing at his house, which is totally understandable to me.

But according to the coordinator of the connection, I cannot take any photo when Deith is outside of the connection even when Deith said he wouldn't mind as well, because they have signed contract with the participants there.

Thus, the last time I photographed Deith, I just spent five minutes photographing him getting on the bus  that takes him home everyday.

The limited opportunities to photograph limit my editing as well. I have to edit my audio according to the photos I have in hand.

I interviewed Deith twice, which I think is not a bad idea as I got a clearer clue from the first interview of what the story was about and what kinds of questions I needed to focus on when I did the second interview.

In all, this is a great learning experience for me in terms of dealing with the relationships with the subject and the organization.