PHOTOGRAPHY PROJECT: (Ah, ah, ah, ah) Staying Alive

Name: Brian
Age: 55
Job: Formerly a mechanic in Richmond, Virginia; now unemployed
Location: Greenwich Village

1. Is there something in your past that you would like to have in your present/future?

Oh yeah, there's a lot of things I would change. Heh, a whole lot. I would love to be young again.

2. What is currently the most important thing in your life?

Staying alive; surviving.

3. How do you imagine your future?

Better than it is right now.

You know, it's kind of interesting - I wanted to add on a bit to Brian's story from my experience interacting with him, but it seems that the photograph and interview speak for themselves.There's not really much more to say.

As usual, life has been a series of inner crises followed by a return to normalcy. The meeting with Lubianitsky was...educational, but perhaps not in the way that I imagined it would be. I still think that he is an amazing photographer, even if I do not completely agree with his views on photography. Here is a link to a nice online collection of his work:

People: Photography Exhibition

Although I was quite disappointed by our encounter at first, I think that I will forget my silliness and eventually return for further guidance from him. This excerpt from an interview with the Columbia Spectator illustrates the kind of valuable knowledge that he possesses:

"Lubianitsky explained that his greatest challenge is to capture the dynamism of his subjects. “‘People photography’ is most difficult because of the threat of people looking like still lives,” he said. To capture a person requires, in Lubianitsky’s words, “spiritual communications” at the subliminal level. “Every person on this earth is photogenic. It is the role of the photographer to present it. It is in the substance of the person. You have to feel it. I try to make the sitter a collaborator in the process,” he explained."

In other news (do I use that phrase a lot?), I rather enjoyed our class visit to the Guggenheim on Wednesday - the current main exhibition is titled "Haunted", and (in my opinion) contains more hits than misses. Although I became quite dizzy and a little nauseous from the spiral formation of the museum, I was, at the very least, intrigued by everything currently gracing its walls.

At the moment, I am racking my brain for a good topic to use in our narrative video assignment. I've got several possible ideas, but time is short! I want this video to be a bit more meaningful than the abstract one.

Update: New edit