Picture Story: Final Project

Well here we are folks. This is everything I’ve worked up for since coming to Mizzou. I’m on no sleep and jacked listening to Roky Erickson and done with my Capstone final project. Let’s just say I haven’t stopped thinking about school being over with all the hurdles and challenges I’ve come up with this project. Choosing to document someone with a mental illness was ambitious to begin with — surely it was for me. And I pull off-ed finding a subject. I felt lucky to have found someone who can relate with wanting accurate accounts of mental illness to be heard. Though, as I began photographing I soon realized that this just can’t be a story on bipolar disorder. Tara, my subject, is a person who has her own unique story. I don’t think I fully realized what that story was until I was near the end of collecting media, though. Tara has bipolar disorder but making sure her kids are happy and healthy is her main concern. Having been subject matter I haven’t photographed before there we many challenges that confronted me as I was photographing and in post-production. This project has taught be valuable lessons in being honest with your subjects and not giving up on them when their behavior isn’t necessarily convenient for me. In addition piecing together a 3-5 minute narrative from nearly two hours of audio interview was another challenge. I now know I can type a lot faster than what I though before. Though I think I wish I had more variety of environments, interactions and expressions with this project but I had to remember people are the way they are and you can’t try and search for more if it’s not there. Is this the quality of work that I thought I would be producing at the beginning of the semester? Somewhat I think, though I we typically set our standards much higher when starting a class. Halfway through putting this project together I thought I was going to lose hope with it. I believe it’s now of at least acceptable quality. Despite that, I can proudly say that I think it distinctly looks it has my photographic vision in it, which is what we all want right?

Anyway, I’m gonna get some sleep. Thanks again Tara Bailey for letting me into your life. Now here’s the video!

30-Day Works-In-Progress

Since my last picture story blog post I’ve been working on my 30-Day Project, documenting the daily life of Tara Bailey. She is a genuinely cheerful person, working alone in cubicle of an office and supporting two young boys. After years of being told she was severely depressed by therapists, at the age of 38 Tara was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. The medication is prescribed keeps her at a level mood, though there are times when paying the bills outweighs being able to pay for her medicine. Though this hurdle can make things tough, she always has a positive constant in her life through her son Anthony.

Working on this project has taught me many things about working on photo stories had I not chose such ambitious subject matter. I think there are many things that I would have gotten more out of this story but I’m pretty pleased with my handling of all the hurdles that came up in the process, which I couldn’t have done without the support of great friends and encourage professor.

Here are some of my still selects. My final project will be finished on the 12th.