Monday, February 16, 2015

A Very Personal Account

I'm taking another photo class and this assignment was to record your identity through three images: reality, representation and fantasy.  This is my identity--at least right now!

The reality is that I love doing many things and love being in the outdoors.  I felt a little foolish taking this photo with 3 feet of snow and temperatures hovering in the single numbers in Vermont.







Since I have a Slavic heritage and a Catholic background, I focused on these in my representational image.  If you have read my blog on Scannography, you know how much I am enamored with the images that result from the process.  I therefore, did a scannography of family things: my grandmother Buchta's babushka, my dad's St. Christopher medal, a St. Anthony medal and relic that my dad had given me when I traveled alone to New Zealand.  (St. Anthony is the patron saint of lost things).  I added a Russian nesting doll and a nodding babushka doll that I bought when I traveled in Slovakia.





 

My fantasy image is very personal and a lot more revealing of my life.  In it I am able to visit the past.
I can be with my husband Bob again and feel what it was like to have a family together.  I can pet my former grand-dogs who have both recently died.  I can hug my dad and my Grandmother Buchta once more. I can experience my three sons as children.  I can once again see my mother's spunk.

The past is in black and white while I am in color. 

6 comments:

  1. So beautiful, haunting and touching, Pat. The "fantasy" part of this has something of your silhouette work about it--dreamlike and expressive of longing for those you have lost. So lovely.

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  2. Thank you. Fran. Your comment means a lot to me.

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  3. Wow....great work for the past several years!

    Hugs Cheryl

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  4. My Dad was a photographer and did a similar assignment for his college course. Your first photo reminds me of that project. It's my favorite photo of my father. And your self-portrait is amazing for its unconventionality, individuality and recording. I think the bit oddity is what makes these type of portraits so powerful and interesting.

    Your last digital collage is very poignant and universal. Losing someone we love, whether they walk on two or four, is always difficult.

    And thank you for that scanography info on a previous post.
    cheers,
    Juana

    And thank you for

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    1. Thank you for the comment and a glimpse into your life, too.

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