25 February

(itunes: Carolyn's awesome mix CD)

These are a couple photos from my photography project. I might post some more or just post the whole thing when the project is finished. It's become quite the controversial topic in class.

Basically the project is built around a trigger and an action. What you choose to do can be as basic or as meaningful as you want it to be so I decided to choose something that would prod a spiritual discussion with my class.

The phone booths that are dotted all around London shocked me when I first arrived because even as you walk by them it is clear that there are images of naked women pasted everywhere inside of them. I later learned they were ads for call girls (prostitutes). I was offended by the images and the fact that they were so available to everyone, even children. I chose the booths as the trigger and then the response was to take a picture of the ground every time I walked by as a means of distraction. My critique was that I wasn't really addressing the trigger and my class really wanted to me to go inside these booths. For a long time I resisted that and felt it was completely against my original intention, but then I talked to Ben Krogh, a great friend, last week and explained my frustration. He suggest that I should go inside, but spend that time praying for the women on the pictures and praying protection over myself. He also suggested getting prayer support from my friends back home. I really liked that idea and decided to give it a shot and still shield my eyes from the images through the blurring of the camera lens.

So the experience became about the mindset and spiritual preparation of creating the photograph. When I went inside those booths I immediately felt claustrophobic and spiritual darkness, but I just kept praying while trying to compose a successful photograph of the experience. I had a really good crit after presenting the photos and it spurred on a really good discussion about prayer and miracles where I was able to further present my Christian worldview to the class. I've got a couple more weeks before I create a Large Format photograph that will embody the the whole project. Not sure how i'll compose that image yet.