Overview:

I have always been fascinated by people, specifically vivid, small moment stories they have to tell about their lives. In addition, throughout high school, I have explored my interest in both photography and writing during school classes and outside of school (International Center of Photography, Photo Uno, Gotham Writers Workshops). When brainstorming my senior project, I knew I wanted to find a way to combine all of these interests. With this in mind, I came up with my essential learning questions: “How can I effectively combine creative-nonfiction writing and film photography?” and “What can be learned about someone through personal objects?” During the six weeks of my project (April 5 – May 17), I am going to take a Non-Fiction writing class with Gotham Writers Workshop. This will help me improve my writing skills in styles like memoir, profiles, and biographies, which will be useful during the other aspects of my projects.

While I’m taking this course, I will also be recording interviews with people (I will try to speak to people I know personally and people I don’t) about physical objects that are important to them. I will ask them questions in order to encourage them to tell specific stories about their lives that relate to these objects. During these meetings, I will also photograph the people and the objects in interesting ways. Later, I will use the recorded interviews to write their stories in descriptive, engaging ways. My final product for my senior project will be a book where each page is designated to a different person (both the images and the writing). 

My main focus throughout my project will be writing and photography about objects. While I will be doing a lot of work surrounding non-fiction stories, I will also be reading and writing fiction stories about objects/people’s objects. I will also be going to museums that exhibit objects and writing about my experiences.

While I will mostly engage with the creativity C of LREI education because my project is focused on art, I will also use critical thinking skills when doing work for the writing class and reading books.

 

Measure of success:

I will measure my success by evaluating my knowledge at the end of my project. I will think about how much I feel I answered my essential questions for myself. I will also consider my project successful if I learn more about my interests, specifically if writing and photography are subjects I want to continue to pursue in college.