Weeks 10 and 11 Homework: Photograph What Frightens You

A confession. I started out with some pretty weak ideas when this homework was put forward by Ria a couple of weeks ago: she asked us to write down, without showing anyone else, four things that scare us, the idea being that we would then go out and take a photograph or collection of photographs that illustrate one of these fears (or we could explore more than one of course). Then, on showing the pictures to the class, it was to be hoped that they would be able to tell what it was we were referring to, would know what we are scared of, without us having to be literal. A twist to it, something that hopefully gave the task a bigger impact, is that in trying to depict something we are frightened of we get the twin benefits of working with a subject that is meaningful as well as one that encourages us to put more of ourselves into our pictures and avoid the banal (hat tip to Mary). I think it also means that, potentially, it could be therapeutic: this last is particularly helpful as pictures worth spending time with have therapeutic effects not just for the creator but for the viewer, or so Alain de Botton and John Armstrong would have us believe. 

Anyway, the ideas I had in the class, reproduced verbatim, were: 

1. Public speaking / dinner party story telling. 

2. Asking a stranger for a photograph. 

3. Selling my photography. 

4. Being in the company of the wealthy. 

However, on re-reading my list I thought I'd go a little deeper. If I am honest, I did this in part because I thought that if I dealt with a big one, an existential fear, the whole thing would be a good deal easier and the photographs would be more interesting and accessible. I also thought the actual photographs would suggest themselves more readily when I was looking for them. So, here you are: 

From these, if anyone intimates ageing and death, job's a good 'un...

Now though, getting this post ready for releasing to the massive audience on my blog (three fellow students and a couple of spam bots), it is interesting to note how, like watching a film you love in the company of someone who is bored, my relationship to the pictures changes and I lose confidence, the ideas I thought interesting and therapeutic becoming indistinct or banal - there seems to be a very fine line between blatant signposting and random confusion. Back, once again, to the drawing board? Maybe, but for now it is too late - it is Friday morning and I'm due in college shortly so you'll just have to accept them as they are. For the record, I think in part that the last one lets the set down - a bit contrived and what you are looking at isn't clear enough. Here's another version taken this morning: 

A bit better but it needs more of a patina of ageing, less contrived. Or something. But time has run out - maybe later (and "Maybe Later" might be a good name for the set?).