Buildings, Monday

Buildings, Week 12

As a true city girl, I am constantly surrounded by the landscape of urban life. We spend our lives in and around them, walking past them, climbing their stairs, or looking out their windows. Buildings and concrete and glass windows abound, yet luckily in the northwest, we're pretty darn good at balancing that with lots and lots of evergreens (go us!). Certain views of certain strees and buildings can trigger memories for me faster than pictures or retelling of stories. The smells and sights combined with certain buildings in downtown seattle or on the University of Portland campus are very special to me, and remind me of junior high trips to westlake center or making out behind the theatre building. Le sigh. The psychology behind what buildings do for our spacial lives is clear and real in my life, and I find the images they create powerful memory keepers. And the most fascinating part of the buildings in my surroundings, is that they were once someones idea, someones inkling or sketch. One person, or a small groupf people, put together this idea of a space, with nooks and crannies and glass and steel, and they birthed it into reality. Out of nowhere. And that to me, is part of why they're just so gorgeous.

-Claire

Youth, Saturday

Youth, Thursday

Youth, Monday

Youth, Week 11

I love kid things. I love kid slang: Puppy guarding, tag backs, hot lava monster, SYKE!, why why why why. I love playgrounds and making up random pretend games and superstitions like not stepping on the cracks and wishing on stars. I love the kind of wonderment that kids have about everything. I try to hold onto that as much as I can. I think it makes people better writers if they are always looking at the world with fresh eyes. So this week our camera's will be our fresh eyes. Exploring the vibrance of life and what youthful things we see on the daily, without being the creepy stalker lady who takes pictures of strangers' kids. Here we go...

-Lauren

Narrow, Saturday

Narrow, Thursday

Narrow, Monday

Narrow, Week 10

Week 10! I can't believe it. Despite the expansion of our project, and our increasing number of "outside our little circle" viewers (yay fellow bloggers and commenters), the theme this week is narrow. I don't have much insight into the complexities of this theme, I think it does a really good job of standing on its own. I can say that my original inspiration for this is not deep or philsohophical, but merely the narrow passage way between my office land of cubicles and the office door and rest of the school of nursing floor. Our good sized office (home to two student worker front desk stations, four substantial cubes, plus a mailing system for over 50 people) is accessable only through a regular sized door and even smaller "aisle" between the copy machine and the front desk bar. It is by far the most amusing thing I do all day, the sa-shaying of my huge ass between the copy machine and whoever is standing at the front desk. Often times it involves an unbeknownst to anyone else, side step and a shuffle, plus a breif but absolutely needed moment of tummy suckage. The worst is when someone does not realize you are skillfully manuevering around them in order to save an interuptive "excuse me" and they back up just a fraction of a step and send your spine into the corner of the machine. Ouch. But luckily I imagine this theme will go far beyond that interpretation specific to my job, and will open the eyes of many to think about the narrow places in their lives. Whether good or bad, natural or not, the idea of narrow thought (on a macro or personal level) can be limiting and at the same time, neccessary. Narrowness (is there actually a plural to that?) can be self-preserving and self destructive. My reality of narrowness, is luckily only slightly annoying and generally very entertaining.

-Claire

Color, Saturday

Color, Thursday

Color, Monday

Color, Week 9

I love bright colors. In my clothes, in my decor, all around me yay bright colors. Black and white is nice too, it has a certain je ne sais pas. But... to pack as many colors into a great photo as possible or to isolate one color to really make it pop, is not only a fun challenge, its an ode to color photography. Why take a picture of something in color if everything in the picture is muted? I want pizazz! I want bold and bright! I want to knock your socks off with the amazing rainbow of shades we can find in our everyday life. I wanna see what claire can come up with in portland because .... i almost feel like I'm cheating living in san francisco. :)

-Lauren

Suppression, Saturday

Suppression, Thursday

Suppression, Monday

Suppression, Week 8

Supress. It's something we do all. the. time. We may not realize it, or want to admit it, but we all do it, probably every day. But sometimes, its the right thing to do. An act of selflesness, of keeping the peace; like supressing my annoyance with superior acting faculty members. Other times its simply self destructive, pushing something away that we think can be dealt with later, at a more conveniant time, not realizing that said resistance to awarness and self-work could be causing more trauma than the actual topic of ickyness. Supressive situations arent always self inflicted however, they can be very real and present from other people, situations, or even institutions. (Calm down conspiracy theorists, don't get too excited!). What are you hiding, or shelving, or "to do listing" that could be better dealt with in the now? And what are you glad you never said? But don't go all Freud on anyone and spend too much time looking into this. Coping mechanisms such as this one can be tricky little double edged swords.

-Claire

Night, Special Monday Edition