Humanity: A Photo Essay (#23)

For my photo essay, I wanted to focus on humanity-what it means to be human, what makes it worth being human, and the things that remind me of my own humanity. All that great glass-half-full stuff. I wanted to portray humanity without using photos of people, though. At least not candid photos of people. In each of the photos I've selected for this essay, one of two things is demonstrated: emotion or motion. The two main focal points of life.


And because Prezi doesn't want me to write lengthy paragraphs, I've turned this into a blog post.

1) "Curtain Call"- One of my very favorite things in the world is going to the movies. Whenever I watch a good movie, I'm reminded of my own humanity-whether I'm intellectually or emotionally stimulated. A few of my favorites are The Royal Tenenbaums, Amelie, Synecdoche, New York, and Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Each of them evokes a really unique emotion or mindset for me. Thus, movie theaters are sort of heaven for me.

2) "Dear Stranger"-Where I lived last, there was this great used book store that my family went to almost every weekend. I could pretty much always count on there being some little trinket in one of the books I picked up-a note to a friend regarding the book, a phone number, ambiguous annotations. It was a treasure trove of quirky little insights into the lives of people I'd never meet or personally know. But I guess through that one little note, our stories were somehow connected.

3) "Profane Vandalism"-After a light snowfall in Manhattan, vandals took to the streets and immortalized Alex in a profane fashion. Poor Alex will have to deal with the repercussions of an unflattering public portrayal. (except dorks aren't all that bad)

4) "Freeway Flow"-I can't adequately express how much I love driving without sounding hyperbolic. There's something about the perpetual forward motion that really gets me."...You think only about driving - not coming from any place; not arriving any place. Just driving, counting off time. Now you are here, at 7:43. Now you are here, at 7:44. Now you are...gone." The way we pass each other without taking much notice, instead getting caught up in the route to our own destination summarizes so much of our lives.

5) "Waiting to Know"-I loved that this pair of raw, somewhat weary hands conveyed so much emotion without a face. Tested patience is such a universal thing and we spend so much of our time waiting for things that never come. A bit of a stark picture, but not without hope.

6) "Star Trail"-There's this type of photography known as star trail that uses long exposure to document the motion of stars throughout the night. This photograph in particular took 90 minutes of footage to string together. The whole concept reminded me something in a Kurt Vonnegut book; this idea of time being a series of snapshots that we can revisit at any time. A string of photos almost that compose your life.

7) "Pursuit of Happiness"-This final photo is probably my favorite. Taken in Italy, this photograph documents a young boy looking out on Rome. I think it perfectly portrays the persistent hopefulness of humanity-the sort of yearning for things that seem so far out of reach, and the determination that if we just had that one thing, we'd be happy.