Life is C Between B and D

In Unit 1, Image, of Journalism we learned what it is to be a journalist. There are many different types of journalism out there, but the main one we studied was photojournalism. This is where an image will tell a story. During class we looked at famous images and had to come up with the meaning behind each image. For our FE we went to a gallery to view an exhibit called "Killing Season Chicago" which showed the places where 172 homicides took place in Chicago over the summer of 2010. It is true what they say an image really does say 1000 words because when looking at these places to know the meaning behind it is a real eye opener. Regarding our first action project, we were tasked with interviewing someone on what they believed the meaning of life to be, and to take a photo representing that meaning. I found it very difficult to take a photo of them since I wanted an action shot and many of mine turned out blurry, but the last one I took turned out clear and looked good. I enjoyed this project because my best friend and I talk about things like this all the time, but we had never brought up the meaning of life in our random, late night chats. Please enjoy my interview and picture below.
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Life gives meaning to life, at least in the book Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life, a children's novel written by Wendy Mass in 2006. Despite it being meant for children, there are thoughts that all ages can take away from this book. One such person this book influenced was my best friend, SV. He believes the meaning of life is “to live life not just live through it, but to experience it and push its limits”.

This book actually changed his view that the meaning of life was to make an impact or leave your mark on the world. This book helped him realize that not everyone can be famous or have a legacy, and it wouldn’t make sense if only a select few people had a meaning to their lives. So while reading, he thought about what the meaning of life truly is, and realized that just by experiencing what life has to offer that your life has meaning. “Kids in the 1970s and 1980s had it right, they would go ride their bikes or do hobbies that they enjoyed”. However, he feels that people now are not living. Everyone is constantly on their phones or computers and when they do go outside or do something, anything, it turns into a photo op. When you go to a concert you see most of the crowds phones or tablets out recording. Being too absorbed in social media causes us to miss the things around us. At home people are finding the best lighting to show off their looks. Now, that's not to say technology’s completely bad; it’s there for a reason. “Hell, I use my phone all the time but I rarely use it for pictures; if all you do is stare at the world through a phone's camera you will never see the world”.

“As long as I can remember I’ve been going to plays and when I moved to Chicago we started going to plays up in Wisconsin. Where this theatre company performed was an area where they tried not to destroy the surroundings; meaning that there is no cell service. I love it. Instead of looking around to find people on their phones I see that they are all sparkle eyed enjoying the plays”. Being in the moment brings more joy to future you than the picture you’re showing off. It’s nice to have memories to flip through that you can see, but we don’t often look at the photos in our phones. When we scroll through our accounts we see what other people are doing and think “oh haha I’m better than you, or oh no you’re better than me”. This causes us to feel like we need to strive to be better or that we need to be just like them, then we’re not living our lives but trying to live someone elses.

It’s impossible to have every person be one-hundred percent unique and there are many people who live very similar lives, but you still are your own person. Once you start trying to be someone you’re not, that’s when your meaning of life becomes clouded. As long as you are living your own life and experiencing it the way you want to, you will have your own meaning. However this meaning can change as you grow older and experiencing different things can influence the meaning. “The way I view the meaning of life is similar to what others think of as destiny in the sense that there is some place you are going to end up, but you can take any road you want to get there”. People have their own way of doing things and their lives can be packed with plans for the future, or taking it easy and going with the flow. A quote that he brought up perfectly explained this concept. “What is life? They say it’s from B to D. From Birth to Death, but what’s between B and D? It’s a C so what is a C? It is a choice. Our life is a matter of choices, live well and it will never go wrong” (Jean-Paul Sartre). The only time that a person is not living their own life is when either they are striving to be someone else or someone is trying to live their dreams through them.

Photographers are not included in this vast majority of photo opportunities, in fact they are some of the people whose life has so much meaning. When they look through a camera, not a phone's camera, but an actual camera they see so much more and are able to share how they see the world. Others just post pictures on social media to show off, not to show the world in a different way.

TS "DMing" (2016) Chicago

In this photo, SV is explaining the scene in our ongoing role playing game. As you can see, we’re sitting outside and he is referring to an actual book instead of a PDF on a laptop or tablet. When we get together with our friends for this weekly game, we enter a no cell phone zone. Anyone who pulls out a phone, unless it’s an emergency, has to give him their phone for the rest of the game. I like how in this photo, there’s a bit of a glare at the top and it isn’t very dark in general. I like the light because it represents how we are not trying to hide who we are to meet the status quo.

Other than making sure the photo had good lighting, I didn’t alter the picture at all. I didn’t want to add in changes due to aperture, shutter speed, or focus because I felt it would take away from the natural life of the photo. This is the same reason I decided to go with an objective photo instead of a subjective one. If I had staged the photo at all, it would’ve taken away from the idea that he is simply living life, not trying to be seen in any certain way.

I took many photos of him over the course of the week from him dancing to him playing video games, one of his passions, but either they came out too blurry, didn’t give off the right feel or he noticed the camera and his demeanor changed. When I took this one we were in the middle of our role playing game, and he was so into it he didn’t even notice me taking the picture. He just looked like he was in his element and like he was really enjoying life. During dance I couldn’t get a clear picture since he was almost constantly moving, and while playing video games he started to get upset with the game because he kept dying and it didn’t give off the feeling of someone just living life. Being relaxed and having fun with friends in an environment where everyone could be themselves really showed off his meaning of life.