Marie von Kampen - Assignment 9

The purpose of this assignment is to get some experience in crafting a narrative. Due to social distancing and time constraints, this will not be so much a documentary project in the classic sense as it would be to structure a visual narrative that has "a story." One of two options had to be picked: 1) A Day in the Life of… 2) A Thanksgiving Story.

I chose to do Option 1, A Day in the Life, representing 24 hours in somebody's Life. Due to COVID safety protocols and my housemates' adamant unwillingness to be documented on camera, I chose to do my day and how its narration related to the evidence of my housemates' existence. A brief description of our communal household: there are two people on the third floor, three people on the second floor, the first floor is the kitchen and shared space, and one person, the landlord, in the basement. Pre-COVID, due to my work, freelance, and class schedule, I could easily go up to a month without seeing any of my housemates. Post-COVID, I can still go a few days without seeing anyone. I always hear them, and often there are traces of them being present, but we mostly keep to ourselves and aren't a very "communal" home.

Photographer's Note: To respect my housemates' privacy, I will only refer to them by their first names.

Assignment 9.01: Before COVID, two things were true, I was the first one up and out of the house, and the toilet seat was rarely left up. Post-COVID, I am the last one awake on my floor, and the toilet seat gets left up regularly. After I wake up and head to the bathroom, this is often what I find. Since I am the only female tenant, I put a note up, but it doesn't seem to help. Taken in Brookline, MA, between Friday, November 20 to Sunday, November 29, 2020. f5.6 (1/1000s ISO 400) Lens: EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS (EFL 23mm)
Photo by Marie von Kampen

Assignment 9.02: One random thing that has come to life in these post-COVID days are the paper towels that my housemate Daniel leaves in certain spots. There are three places that I can find these paper towels. The first is on the shelf behind the shower, where we store the toilet paper. Daniel started using these paper towels to handle things like doorknobs, latches, etc., that may be touched by other people regularly. Taken in Brookline, MA, between Friday, November 20 to Sunday, November 29, 2020. f5.6 (1/25s ISO 200) Lens: EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS (EFL 23mm)
Photo by Marie von Kampen

Assignment 9.03: We use a wall calendar to track whose turn it is to clean the bathroom. We manage this ourselves and check off when we've scoured the bathroom. This month's calendar had a little political addition by Daniel, even though he can't vote since he is from Spain. Taken in Brookline, MA, between Friday, November 20 to Sunday, November 29, 2020. f5.6 (1/25s ISO 200) Lens: EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS (EFL 27mm)
Photo by Marie von Kampen

Assignment 9.04: I use the second-floor hallway window to put plants that have pests. I leave them there for at least a month to quarantine them. This window is right outside of Daniel's door. The plant on the left was the first plant I put out. The one on the right was the next, but I didn't leave a note. So Daniel added his own not to ask me if it was also under quarantine. The middle isn't a plant, but the broken Wi-Fi booster. Aaron, who lives on the third floor, is in charge of the internet in the house. He left the broken one on the window after he upgraded to a new one. Daniel has a sense of humor and left a note, which I found this week when I checked on the plants. Taken in Brookline, MA, between Friday, November 20 to Sunday, November 29, 2020. f5.6 (1/80s ISO 800) Lens: EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS (EFL 18mm)
Photo by Marie von Kampen

Assignment 9.05: The five of us in the house share the kitchen on the first floor, and I'm usually the last to make breakfast. This kitchen scene has things that are indicative of certain housemates. The slightly ajar drawer on the right, where Aaron stores his empty tortilla bags, reuses them instead of tossing them. Aaron and Daniel have their own frying pans, cast iron and Teflon, respectively, instead of using the general house cookware. Mohsen almost always bakes his dinner, so the ceramic baking dish resides on the counter until I get annoyed and put it away. Taken in Brookline, MA, between Friday, November 20 to Sunday, November 29, 2020. f5.6 (1/50s ISO 1600) Lens: EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS (EFL 21mm)
Photo by Marie von Kampen

Assignment 9.06: The second location of Daniel's paper towels is on the small storage shelf next to the second fridge. There are two fridges in the kitchen since there are anywhere from 5-6 tenants at a time. Daniel, Aaron, and I use this fridge. I've witnessed Daniel using the paper towel to open the refrigerator, take out his milk jug, and open it. Taken in Brookline, MA, between Friday, November 20 to Sunday, November 29, 2020. f5.6 (1/13s ISO 800) Lens: EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS (EFL 34mm)
Photo by Marie von Kampen

Assignment 9.07: Usually, during my lunch break, I take a short walk not to go to stir crazy. Three of us, Aaron, Youssef, and I, prefer to take our shoes off and leave them in the entryway. I don't actually go my shoes here after I had a pair stolen, so I take them off and bring them upstairs. Taken in Brookline, MA, between Friday, November 20 to Sunday, November 29, 2020. f3.5 (1/6s ISO 800) Lens: EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS (EFL 21mm)
Photo by Marie von Kampen

Assignment 9.08: Daniel leaves his running clothes on the back porch to dry. He started putting large rocks on his tops after they began getting blown away by the wind. The radiators in the foreground and window screens in the background are from projects my landlord hasn't completed. Taken in Brookline, MA, between Friday, November 20 to Sunday, November 29, 2020. f5.6 (1/160s ISO 200) Lens: EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS (EFL 18mm)
Photo by Marie von Kampen

Assignment 9.09: After my walk, I bring my laptop downstairs and make lunch while "on the clock." Often kitchen things have moved around, or new things have appeared since the time I made breakfast. Taken in Brookline, MA, between Friday, November 20 to Sunday, November 29, 2020. f5.6(1/10s ISO 800) Lens: EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS (EFL 20mm)
Photo by Marie von Kampen

Assignment 9.10: After work, I usually take another walk. Daniel's third paper towel can generally be found on top of the mailbox. He uses to open the front door and check the mail. Sometimes it ends up on the floor from the door breeze, and then it can be found in the recycling (which is not where it's supposed to go). Taken in Brookline, MA, between Friday, November 20 to Sunday, November 29, 2020. f5.6(1/13s ISO 1600) Lens: EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS (EFL 21mm)
Photo by Marie von Kampen

Assignment 9.11: By the time I get home from my walk, it's usually dark outside. A few times a week, I'll find a food delivery waiting on the porch for someone to grab it. Taken in Brookline, MA, between Friday, November 20 to Sunday, November 29, 2020. f5.6(1/6s ISO 1600) Lens: EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS (EFL 27mm)
Photo by Marie von Kampen

Assignment 9.12: I also am usually the last one to make dinner. So I sometimes come into the kitchen with unique food storage situations, like these brownies on a plate in a grocery bag. Taken in Brookline, MA, between Friday, November 20 to Sunday, November 29, 2020. f5.6(1/8s ISO 1600) Lens: EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS (EFL 20mm)
Photo by Marie von Kampen

Assignment 9.13: When I get to the kitchen, there are sometimes random things on the floor. Usually, someone has stored them quickly, so they end up falling out of the cubby like this Saran Wrap and bag near the back kitchen door. Taken in Brookline, MA, between Friday, November 20 to Sunday, November 29, 2020. f5.6(1/6s ISO 1600) Lens: EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS (EFL 18mm)
Photo by Marie von Kampen

Assignment 9.14: It seemed a funny thing for me to notice, but I usually don't have a reason to wipe off the mirror after I shower. I tend to shower at night and see the ghosts of either Daniel or Youssef clearing the mirror, probably to shave. (Yes, I took my camera with me when I went to shower.) Taken in Brookline, MA, between Friday, November 20 to Sunday, November 29, 2020. f5.6(1/13s ISO 200) Lens: EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS (EFL 18mm)
Photo by Marie von Kampen

Assignment 9.15: I keep terrible hours, so I'm usually the last one to go to bed. By default, I end up turning off any lights that get left on. Fairly regularly, one of the kitchen lights will be on, and this week for some reason, it was the half bathroom, with its upright toilet seat mocking me. Taken in Brookline, MA, between Friday, November 20 to Sunday, November 29, 2020. f5.6(1/50s ISO 1600) Lens: EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS (EFL 20mm)
Photo by Marie von Kampen

REFLECTION

Now that we are headed into the end of the semester, I feel like every assignment has given me some anxiety, proportional to my comfort level. After I read this assignment, I screamed internally that I wish this weren't during COVID times. If this was the before times, there was a good chance I would have traveled to Mississippi to visit my mother, who just turned 81. I would have LOVED to document her "day in the life," especially for my memories. Plus, despite her annoyance, I could have easily photographed her without issue. Unfortunately, the reality was, I am stuck in a home with housemates that are firmly against being photographed, so my anxiety at being able to complete this assignment in a way that felt true to my standards had me all up in my head.

Thanks to some helpful brainstorming from my friend Le Huong and TA Nafis, I came up with the idea of documenting the impression of my housemates since we rarely see each other in person. (Example, we send group emails, not even texts, to communicate with each other.) I realized I would need to draw from what I learned from the Eggleston Assignment and the rules of composition to capture the mundane moments which were traces of their existence.

On the technical side of things, I knew I wanted to try to shoot this in black and white since we had not been able to do this in this course yet. It was a new experience, and I was thankful for the recommendation to change my viewfinder to show in B&W. This camera setting helped me take stock of the lighting for each room. I also utilized the white balance settings and alternated between auto for most daylight shots, and tungsten for the photos shot indoors after the sun went down. I did have to remind myself to bump up my ISO to 800 or 1600 and use a tripod. After the first two days of shooting around the house, I noticed that individual rooms, even during the day, the photos had subtle blur, so I started carrying around my camera with the tripod attached. I also found it very challenging to keep the images consistent. Despite being all black white, shooting them in either daylight or inside lighting meant they carried different moods, so I spent time in Lightroom trying to even them out.

I found this assignment different in the process of choosing photos. I took about 180 photographs. I found choosing which photos more challenging during other assignments, and it took me longer to decide. In this assignment, since I was trying to tell a particular "story," it was easier to cut photos as it didn't matter if I liked how they looked. If they didn't fit the story, they had to go. I was able to whittle down to about 30 photos pretty quickly, and then the challenge was then which 10-15 fit the story. Also, I found it very difficult to capture and choose the first and final photos for this set. I know part of this was because I was choosing to photography traces of people, as opposed to people, and mentally, it was hard to wrap about the idea that an object could be as compelling as a person. I also found it a challenge to decide how to present the photos in this story format. I don't know if the setup I finally decided on was effective, so I want to see what other people did and look at more photographers' websites.

Overall, I did not feel my submission for this assignment was very strong and was a bit disappointed in myself. While I found individual photos strong, I feel like I could have created a stronger story. If I could have, I would have probably chosen a different subject matter. My take away from this assignment is that you can direct the story, like a movie, as a photographer. The "white chair" photos by Greg Marinovich also showed me this, except for me, it was the white paper towel. What do you want the viewer to take away from these photos is really up to the pictures you decide to share and the sequence in which you present them. It makes me understand the importance of the beginning and ending photos to capture interest or set the mood. I would love to do this project again, in non-COVD times, with people like my mom or some of my close friends. While the day in the life might seem a bit intrusive to the subject, I love this project's honesty using a "regular" person. I don't assume that I'll ever be in a situation that I'm documenting a crazy event or conflict, but this made me realize you can capture people or things in your life with the same kind of interest.

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