Blog Post #8: Photo Inferences

When searching for a picture to write about our first project I wanted to find one that I could connect with and a topic that I knew something about. After going through dozens of pictures I finally stumbled across this one when I wasn’t even really looking. This picture comes from the Invisible Children website. Invisible Children is an advocacy organization supporting and promoting change for the people of Africa, specifically those living in Uganda, Sudan, Darfur, and Rwanda.

This particular photograph was taken at a displacement camp in Uganda. It shows three boys looking over the displacement camp. The three boys could be brothers, or best friends. They are standing close together and seem to have some sort of connection, suggesting that they are not simply strangers at the same place at the same time. Though we cannot see their faces, we can gain a great deal of knowledge about what they are thinking or feeling by the way they are standing. They are somewhat slouched and their gazes are focused downward, not up and out as you might see with pride or excitement. But then again, they are looking over the homes that they, and people like them, have been forced into, not a childhood home, or tight-knit village, so there isn’t much I could imagine much they would have to be happy or excited about.

The boys in the photo probably live in the displacement camp they are looking over as area rebel groups and government agencies forced “more than 1.8 million people – or 80 percent of the population in northern Uganda – to flee their homes and instead live in squalid displacement camps in which an estimated 1,000 individuals die each week.” (Northern Uganda Crisis) They probably live very difficult lives. Aside from the miserable conditions that they have been forced to live in, they most likely live in fear of being recruited or kidnapped to become child soldiers for the LRA, (Lord’s Resistance Army) a rebel force in Uganda and Sudan lead by Joseph Kony, who often train young boys to become killing machines for their cause.

Aside from the fear that they could possibly at any time be taken from their family and forced to kill, the boys’ lives in the displacement camps, like the one they are looking over, is dismal and very difficult to say the very least. The homes are made of straw, sticks, dirt or cloth and are all very close together, causing conditions to be unsanitary and the spread of disease to be rapid. There are never enough resources. Even basic human needs, such as food and water, are scarce. The activities that occur in the displacement camps are ones that promote survival. There aren’t extra resources or space for other entertainment or fun. All of their energies are typically spent trying to get through to the next day. The boys have probably already seen and understand things far beyond their years and taken on great responsibility to help their family and community survive.

Blog Post #7: Photography Experience

I have always had an interest in photography. When I was five my family went a trip to Lake Okoboji, Iowa and my mom gave me my own disposable camera. I thought it was the most wonderful thing in the world and I came back with some very interesting pictures. Now, keep in mind that I was only five, so most of the pictures were of ducks, squirrels, birds, trees, the lake, and several of our hotel room. But I also took some that were actually worthwhile. One evening my dad decided that he was going to try to fish, a bad decision since my father has no innate fishing skills what so ever. So I sat with my camera on the dock with him for hour after fish-less hour. Finally he thought that he caught something and spent the better part of five minutes trying to reel it in. When he finally brought his catch to the surface, it wasn’t fish at all… it was seaweed. I had wanted to take a picture of the “fish” my dad caught, so as soon as the hook surfaced I snapped a picture. The result was a profile shot of my father’s incredibly shocked face and a fishing pole hooked onto a whole lot of seaweed. It perfectly captured the moment, and anyone looking at the picture could clearly understand what had happened. This remains one of my favorite pictures I have ever taken.

Since that time, I have had many more disposable cameras, and my love of photography has continued to grow. I don’t claim to be the best photographer, but I honestly believe that part of my problem may be that I have never had the right tools.

I have had digital cameras, but the quality hasn’t been anywhere near professional and they have all basically been a flash or no flash, line it up, point and shoot kind of situation. I did take a photography class in high school and learned a little about the basics of photography and got to use the school’s professional cameras. So that helped to give me some confidence and knowledge. But despite my lack of the tools to take great pictures, I feel that I am ableto compensate by being able to capture a moment, as well finding good subjects and subject matter. Two of my best photography experiences were trips that I took. One was to Washington D.C. my senior year of high school, and the other was to London my sophomore year. Aside from having amazing subject matter to shoot, I feel like I was able to take some more artistic shots as well as the more “touristy” ones that you take just to remember what places looked like and that have you and your friends in them to prove you were actually there, and you were there together.

I have always loved looking at and taking pictures. Whether or not I am actually any good at evaluating photography or shooting it is still yet to be determined! The two images posted here are pictures that I took during my trip to London. The first is of London's Tower Bridge, and the second is of Stonehenge.