Evelyn Dumont Photography: 2013

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Final Project idea

My project is inspired by excerpts of William Wordsworth’s poems, particularly “Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of an Early Childhood”. So much of who are now is based on what happened with us during our childhood. This is essentially a project on human behavior made to raise the question in the viewers head why we are acting this way now. I would like to capture images that represent the ruminations of these poems and what they mean to all of us. I would like to give them a modern meaning and show how everything relates. I want to play with words in the photograph as well as none at all. I also want to experiment with the Holga camera for this project, as well as the DSLR. Part of the challenge of this project is waiting for something to present itself to me naturally for many of the photos. Some of them can be staged but I want most of them to be natural.

For example:

Blank misgivings of a Creature

Moving about in worlds not realized,

High instincts before which our mortal Nature

Did tremble like a guilty thing surprised:

This excerpt is about how we as children move about in a place we have no real grasp of and how our instincts were sharp and new to us; they surprised us at every new experience. Maybe here I will take a photograph of someone moving about aimlessly throughout their day. Or a moment of instinct between people. This photograph will have to be on what presents itself to me throughout the day.

Uphold us, cherish, and have power to make

Our noisy years seem moments in the being

Of the eternal Silence: truths that wake,

To perish never:

This is about the moments of truth in our long, busy lives that stand out from the noise. Our lives our eternally silent and noisy at the same time. These moments will be very truthful and unexpected. I will attempt to capture one of these. I think I will have to carry my camera around with me constantly in order to get some of these moments.

And with new joy and pride

The little actor cons another part;

Filling from time to time his 'humorous stage'

With all the Persons, down to palsied Age,

That Life brings with her in her equipage;

As if his whole vocation

Were endless imitation.

This excerpt is about how we go through life taking on parts as if we were an actor. We are constantly changing things about ourselves and creating different part of us. As if we were constantly imitating throughout our entire lives. For this photograph, I might take a picture of my acting class just being themselves and hanging out. They all have such distinct personalities and its fascinating to watch them endlessly imitate.

Another race hath been, and other palms are won.

Thanks to the human heart by which we live,

Thanks to its tenderness, its joys, and fears,

To me the meanest flower that blows can give

Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.

This is an ode to the human heart. This will be a very tricky photograph to capture. As I take these photographs I want to be open-minded and ready for anything that could happen. This could be a picture of someone focusing on a mundane object and thinking of a memory that means something to them. This moment can be staged in the sense of I can have someone sit for me and coach them.