9/11

Everyone has their own personal memory of 9/11. I was in science in the 7th grade and our teacher gave us an idea what happened but we didn't understand. We were all worrying but weren't too sure why. We were told that a plane crashed into the two towers but it didn't really set in until I got out of school and was able to see the footage on tv.

It was a very scary event whether it directly affected you or not. My mom told me my Uncle had affiliation with the Pentagon and I was hoping all of my family members were okay. Most of my family lives/works in MD/DC.

One of my classmates found out that her Dad died. It was just horrible.

A year after I went with my Uncle to NYC and ground zero was such a sight. It was my first time going and to see ruins.

Uneasy

I've been stressing over the idea of "documentary". What does this mean to me in my own work? How can I successfully make images that work in the right sense. Is my own work too artsy for documentary work. I am used to manipulating images, even in little ways. Telling someone to tilt their head a bit. Positioning/dressing a model to express a certain concept.

Wikipedia?
The photographer attempts to produce truthful, objective, and usually candid photography of a particular subject, most often pictures of people. The pictures usually depict a certain perspective of the photographer.

Truthful...Photographing whats there. I've been so used to constructing everything. I have to come at this with a different perspective.

Researching documentary photography I notice a lot of it is black and white. I realise that in certain time periods that color was not an option. I wonder if people do black and white to make it seem more important. In History of Photography one of the things we learned was that some artists use color to spice up their images but that a good image didnt need color. You have to look at a picture and ask if it is good because of the composition or color.


eeeeeeeh

Frances Benjamin Johnston

This image caught my attention almost immediately. At first glance I felt like there was something slightly peculiar. I realized after looking at it for a few seconds that it was a portrait of three women.

The photographer's name is Frances Benjamin Johnston. This is one of her many self portraits dressed as a man. This is very intriguing to me.

I researched her a little bit on the internet and she keeps coming up in LGBTQ websites. There is some suspect that she may have been a lesbian. I know for sure that she must have been a feminist. Her self portraits brought up a lot of issues with equality of women in that time. Women never wore the pants but here she donned a whole outfit and a mustache.

Possible Sources

• Leslie Feinberg: Stone Butch Blues and Transliberation: Beyond Pink or Blue


• Kate Bornstein: Gender Outlaw , My Gender Workbook and Pomosexuals

Ideas

Coming into this class I thought I would have a plethora of ideas. Gender and identity have been key concepts in my photography lately. They are both something I am very interested in. Taking it from a different standpoint seems a bit difficult though. I have complete confidence in myself but I am used to art photography. This is a documentary class so I will just have to learn how to take it from that standpoint.

I am really interested in transgender issues. It seems like that is a popular concept throughout the class so I am not sure if thats what I want to tackle. Id like everyone to see my project as something complete unique, atleast within the classroom. Its weird for me to be in a setting where everyone is interested in similar issues dealing with gender and identity. I need to find exactly what I want to do and make it different from everyone elses.

I went to VCU's Queer Action club last thursday. The topic of the night was Trans 101. I know plenty about trans issues so it was just interesting to sit back and watch somebody else talk about it and answer questions. I think I will keep going to add to issues I can talk about.

Loose Ideas

• genderqueer
• labels within the lgbtq community
• transgender issues
• drag queens/kings
• clothing choice vs gender identity
• gender identity vs sexual preference
• trans couples

*I'll add more/subtract