On Island Living

I've been really intrigued with island life since my second week at SALT. I came to Peaks for my neighborhood assignment. I had felt isolated, lost, and alone then. I've been back many times since. Exploring the island one little piece at a time...of course, it doesn't really take all that long to explore a small island, but there is just something about it. It's just so methodical here. You have to plan out grocery trips (if you don't want to shop at the only grocery store in town), and social trips since the ferry can be limited (although there are more ferries coming and going from Peaks than the others).

I've been daydreaming about what it would be like to live on an island...so you can imagine my excitement when Mira, SALT's writing instructor, posted that she may need a dog sitter for the week. I volunteered as fast as I could. First and foremost, Mira and her family were gracious enough to bring me into their home on my first exploratory mission to Peaks. She noticed that I didn't have the proper footwear for all of the slow I was about to trek on...so she offered here's to me. Her and her husband also offered me a map of the island and pointed me towards the right direction. Of course, I volunteered largely because I wanted to pretend to be an islander for a few days, but I also wanted to thank Mira for her kindness.

I decided, with Nelson's blessing, not to go to Worcester this weekend. To be frank, my pockets cannot afford the short trip every week...but I have been stretching it and "making it work." So I've been on the island on and off since Wednesday. My head feels clearer here. It's quiet and the dogs have been keeping me company. We explored the dirt roads together and took a nice hike on the beach during sunset. I've been getting a lot of reading done. It has always been a bad habit of mine to pick up a book, read a couple of chapters, and never finishing it. So my mission was to have a bit of a 'staycation' and try to chip away at this book I brought from home ("Her" by Christa Paravanni - a photographer who lost her twin). It's been quite therapeutic...all of it.

I'm also re-cutting my multimedia piece. The audio and B-roll rough cut is due today. I've learned that the difficulty with telling someone else's story is some how, you almost always suck at it. So basically, I'm trying not to suck. I've literally been cutting on and off since Wednesday.

I'm also working on re-sequencing my photo story, since I will not have any photos to critique on Monday (my very first time since the beginning of the semester and I feel weird about that). My goal today is to write a focus statement for the photo story and see if things become more apparent...fingers crossed...don't worry, I just learned what a 'focus statement' was yesterday...

Last night I hemmed and hawed over which photograph from my project I was going to submit for a show postcard. Everyone gets to submit just one photo, and I almost didn't, because I know my classmate's photo would win. Everyone, including myself, has been swooning over it and as of last night, there was only five submissions out of seventeen. I guess we will find out.

It's been raining all morning and I'm feeling sad about leaving Peaks.

On water rights

Tonight the photo kids are having a sleep over in Fryeburg, a little Maine town on the New Hampshire border. We are here on a mission...well, a group project really.

The town is fighting Nestle and their proposed 45 years water extraction contract. Water is currently being pumped out of Fryeburg's aquifer and sold in plastic bottles while the town drinks well water...still, their water is more clean than our public drinking water in West Virginia. Of course, there is two sides to every story, so we're here to 'investigate' ...or document this fight, a fight that's essentially a global fight. Privatization of water...it's happening all over the world and it's happening in Fryeburg.

I'm going to stop here before I go any further. Tomorrow Nicole and I are taking to the roads on bicycles. Watch out everyone else!

Following Strangers

Sorry I've been MIA for the past couple of weeks. School has been very busy and stimulating. So much so that sometimes I come home and end up doing absolutely nothing so my brain can be quiet. But this isn't a bad thing. I knew this coming to SALT that it wasn't going to be easy. I guess it's just very real now...duh, I'm five weeks in. So that's catch up.

I followed a stranger home. I did it. It was rewarding and exhilarating to know that out of the two most feared assignments, I had accomplished one and got to cross it off the ol' bucket list. I met a man named Steven on the street a couple of days before I followed him home and I was surprised that I even mustered up the nerve to ask him right away. I really didn't know what his story was excepted that he collects cans as a form of exercise to make a little side money. I guess I felt rather comfortable with him on first impression. Steven was great. I followed him around while he collected cans around Portland for at least three hours. It was 27 degrees and he didn't wear gloves where I was a vision of Ralphie's little brother from a Christmas Story. He had an exact route through the city (which varied between winter and summer) and knew every single trash can. I think the thing that was the most incredible was the fact that Steven has been legally blind since the age of 35. He has trouble seeing during the day but navigates the night extremely well. 

I felt a great connection with Steven and was really grateful for my experience with him. I'm grateful for this assignment too. I honestly would not have done this on a day to day life scenario. I think that's what its really all about her. Pushing myself out of my comfort zone. It's been challenging but nothing is ever rewarding without a challenge. 

Practice makes perfect

Last week, a few of my classmates and I got together to practice. My photo classmate, Roger, and I were inspired by Eugene Richard's Dorchester Days and asked, Bram, to be our model.

Dorchester Days was in black and white but I went against the grain and decided to go with color. After a couple of hours with Bram (radio track), Roger and I took a walk around snowy Portland.

Week 1

We've been thrown in to the water and learning how to swim for the first time. I'm pretty sure one of the track professors referenced that, but I can't remember whom. That's basically how this week has felt. We've gone over our syllabi, assignments, expectations, partners, and lectures. We've been thrown onto the street to strike up conversations with strangers and to record sounds.

I never thought the day would come for me to attend school, so walking into Salt on Monday was a pretty big deal. Shane was right, it finally hit me. It was a mixture of nerves and excitement. Sitting in the sacred photo cave gave me a sense how intense this experience is going to be. There's an importance of hard work and dedication just floating around.

What I love about Salt is that our instructors are extremely knowledgable in their field. They are all working professionals. Nelson, my photography instructor, is a talented photographer and is basically a photography genius. He's like the dictionary of photography. I'm so excited that he will be teaching us photo literacy, because I have no idea who the forefathers are. Names never stuck with me so I'm trying really hard to absorb.

After our multimedia labs today I started exploring. The sky is dumping snow on us and I'm pretty sure its been snowing for 12 straight hours. I thought it would make for some great neighborhood photographs. I struggled to find courage to photograph today. I only snapped about five frames. I'm not sure if I'm just not seeing what I'm interested in, or if Nelson's is and isn't is making me rethink photography. Not that I wasn't methodical before, but I'm just a bit more careful about what a landscape photograph looks like now.

Today was our last day of class for the week so I am taking the ferry to the islands to explore a bit more. I've got some leads on a project story, but my brain is still pulling me in five different directions. Hopefully being in open water will give me a sense of clarity.

Back to school

Well, today is the day. I start school in less than half and hour.

Last night I met up with some of my future classmates and realized that there will only be 19 of us. 19 is a small number, a rather intimate number I might say. I stopped by the SALT housing and it's pretty beautiful...part of me wish that I was able to afford it...but I really love my place here on Mellen and I'm so grateful to the Tierney family for letting me stay.

Some of my classmates and I went to Otto's pizza last night to grab a slice and a beer. We talked a bit about our background, about how we found out about Salt, and most importantly, why we are here in the first place. I've already met 3 of my track mates (there are only 5 of us!) and they are really great.

I'm so nervous. I wore a red shirt today because that's considered lucky in Thai. Now I'm not superstitious about stuff like that, but I don't know. I woke up and felt like wearing red...am I channeling my inner Tiger Woods? Regardless, I hope to take away as many things as Salt is able to offer. A lot of people have asked me what the school will do for me and my answer today is Salt will do exactly what I can take from it. It will give me to opportunities to find tune my craft and open my own doors. Because ultimately, you have to do things yourself in order to succeed.