Left: The Web site of photographer Ava Johnson. Right: An untitled image from her series entitled “Good. Grief.” © Ava Johnson

Photographer, instructor, performer, and Center for Documentary Studies Public Information Coordinator, Ava Johnson visited our class in WEEK 5. I had the opportunity to meet Ava the previous Saturday when I attended the Ethics in Photography panel discussion at the White Lecture Hall (post here). Ava was one of three CDS instructors who facilitated the afternoon workshop with Duke students and a couple of CDS students.

Ava’s energy and passion for photography are evident as soon as you meet her. Just listening to her express her work and share her personal life experiences added a whole new dimension to seeing her work. That’s one of the beautiful things about getting to talk with artists while they share their work. Her enthusiasm was infectious and I couldn’t help but be motivated to go make pictures.

She shared some of her portfolio projects with us including “South of the Border”, a series of images made with Diana and Holga cameras that focused on the details of decay and disrepair of the classic freeway tourist trap. She also shared an incredibly poignant and genius series called “Recreations”, whereby she presented diptychs with family photographs on the left and recent photographs of her on the right in the same places, in the same poses. This series was especially great for me because it offered an intimate look into her family life. My favorite project is entitled “Good. Grief.” Ava shared that this series of images came about in the aftermath of a devastating apartment fire. Faced with moving to an area unfamiliar to she and her partner, she used her camera to document a time in her life where she was unsettled, both physically and emotionally. These images convey an amazing awareness of time and place and an almost haunting familiarity. Being able to listen to her describe these series of events was quite emotional for me.

Ava’s work is here.
Ava blogs here.

This week’s homework:
Glenn Hinson, “Crafting Fictions, Telling Truths: Creative Collaboration in the Photography of Roland L. Freeman”
Raphael Samuel, “Perils of the Transcript”
As told to Pamela Grundy by John B. McLendon, Jr., “‘A Position of Respect:’ A Basketball Coach Who Resisted Segregation”
Clarissa Sligh, “The Plaintiff Speaks” from Picturing Us: African American Identity in Photography

Also for homework, create an elevator pitch for our project.

March 20, 2010. Ethics in Photography panelists Gilles Peress, Bonnie Jo Mount, Corinne Dufka, Elizabeth Barret, Wendy Ewald, and moderator Thomas Keenan engage the attendees at the White Lecture Hall at Duke University’s East Campus.

In this week’s class, we watched Elizabeth Barret’s film Stranger With A Camera. I had heard of this film before, but had never seen it. It was incredibly compelling. On Saturday, March 20, I had an opportunity to attend an Ethics in Photography panel discussion and workshop hosted by Duke’s Center for International Studies, DukeEngage, Center for Documentary Studies, and the Duke Office of Research Support. Panelists included Magnum photographer Gilles Peress, Bonnie Jo Mount, picture editor for The Washington Post, Human Rights Watch’s Corinne Dufka, CDS’s Wendy Ewald, and Bard professor Thomas Keenan as moderator.

The scope of the discussion was as follows – Photography and film-making are increasingly integrated into many aspects of a student’s academic life. Even two decades ago, visual images of others were for private or small group viewing. This is no longer the case. We now have cell phone cameras, Facebook, blogging and other means of communicating images to a wide audience in a very short time. Many of these images find second lives, being shared in ever-widening networks or, even, picked up by news outlets. And this dramatic technical change raises questions that are not part of most students’ thinking. Now is the moment, when with the many service-learning projects and increased funding for undergraduate research at Duke and other schools, to examine what it means to take, own and share a photograph.

Panelists and attendees were presented with the following case study as a basis for the discussion:

Case Study [ETHICS IN PHOTOGRAPHY]
The goal of the following narrative is to provide all participants with a come “think piece” from which we can play off during the morning panel discussions and in the afternoon break groups. We have adjusted both Duke’s calendar and that of the world’s to accommodate this story.

* Where are the points in the narrative where one might talk about Amy’s responsibilities and, very importantly, responsibilities to whom?
* Does she have any responsibility for second party use?
* Do those users have any obligations to Amy or the photograph’s subject?
* Are there questions of breach of agreement (Duke’s Institutional Review Board/Human Subject approval that she needed to submit for her program in Chile) and breaches of conscience/implied good faith?

Panelist Gilles Peress addresses a question as Bonnie Jo Mount looks on (left). Slides presented by Corinne Dufka of Human Rights Watch (right).

Five pages of handwritten notes later, I was left with the notion that there are larger issues out there to consider when thinking about pictures. We certainly can’t process everything before we press the shutter release, but there will be a time to check your heart and your gut before distributing your images. This case study raised so many more questions that I initially thought it would. The rich blend of experience from the panelists made for excellent conversation and gave me lots to chew on.

Homework this week included:
Ruth Behar, Chapters One and Three, The Vulnerable Observer
Daryl Lang and David Walker, “Meaning and Interpretation: Inside a Controversial 9/11 Image” (from PDN, November 2006)
Wendy Ewald, I Wanna Take Me a Picture
James Agee and Walker Evans, excerpts, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
Come to class next week with a one-page, typed narrative project summary to workshop.

John Biewen (above), Audio Program Director at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, spoke with our class Tuesday, March 9, 2010. He shared sections of his documentary piece Nuevo South with us. As a photographer that has only dipped my toe into audio, I was fascinated by the amount of fieldwork that goes into producing such a piece. John noted that he probably made 20 trips to Siler City over the course of a year to gather material. And that’s not counting editing all the audio.

John shared that two versions ultimately aired: a narrated version on NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday with Scott Simon, and a non-narrative , which was published at American RadioWorks and can be heard here. We discussed the differences between narrative and non-narrative and the pros and cons of each.

In addition to teaching at CDS, John produces documentary work for NPR, PRI, American Public Media, and other public radio audiences. His work has received two Robert F. Kennedy Awards, the Third Coast International Audio Festival’s Public Service Award, and the Scripps Howard National Journalism Award, among others. He recently published a book, Reality Radio, which he co-edited with Alexa Dilworth.

Reading homework this week:
Barre Toelken, “The Yellowmen Tapes, 1966-1997″
Lesley Williams with Naomi Schegloff, “Ethics”
James Bau Graves, “Rules of Engagement: Facilitating Community Cultural Programs”
FolkStreams, from Making the Film, A Singing Stream

Additional recommended reading:
Art Spiegelman, Chapter Two, Maus: A Survivor’s Tale
Dorothy Noyes, “Group”, from Journal of American Folklore

We’re also supposed to:
1. Watch two documentaries pieces from WRAL’s Clay Johnson.
2. Read several project descriptions from the Southern Documentary Fund’s list of current projects and note which ones we find compelling and why.
3. Decide on an idea for a project and be prepared to discuss it at next week’s class.

(Walker Evans’ FSA photographs of Floyd Burroughs, his wife, Allie Mae Burroughs, and the washstand in the Burroughs’ home, Hale County, Alabama, 1936.)

Week two of the Seminar in Documentary Studies brought a great discussion session of the previous week’s reading assignments. We discussed several passages, what spoke to us, and of course, the interesting character of James Agee. We talked about the homework exercise “Who Are You?” and reviewed a case study of a student and his idea for a documentary project. The resulting discussion was centered around being aware of our own biases when going into a documentary project. Joy emphasized the importance of introspection and asking questions of yourself in an effort to better understand your subject and perhaps even why you want to document them.

Next, we discussed the definition of a documentary. We reviewed several different genres of documentary work: expository, direct cinema, social change, and reflexive.

This week’s homework is to read:
Bruce Jackson, Chapter Seven, Fieldwork
Hugo Slim and Paul Thompson, Chapter One, Listening for a Change
Guides to equipment and getting started in the field (CDS handout)
Sample interview agreement (CDS)
Jay Allison, “Radio Storytelling”, Nieman Reports, Fall 2001

In addition to the reading assignments, we’re supposed to experience a documentary of our choice (audio, film, exhibit, etc.) and evaluate its genre, discern the type of fieldwork conducted, evaluate how meaning is constructed in it, and post our comments on the class discussion board.

A few things of interest:
1. Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. I’d heard about this book and even seen it at bookstores before. Like many things we’re quick to dismiss, I was never really interested in it. It’s now on my “books I’d like to own” list. Walker Evans was only 32 when he accompanied James Agee (26) to rural Hale County, Alabama on an assignment for Fortune Magazine. They spent more than a month with three different families documenting their daily lives. Evans mainly used an 8×10″ view camera, but also a Leica 35mm and possibly a 4×5″ view camera. Agee submitted a lengthy manuscript to the Fortune editors, longer than anything they could feasibly publish. More than a year later, and still unpublished, Agee convinced Fortune to release it and then tried to have Harper and Brothers publish it as a book. He refused to make changes and the deal went nowhere. Finally, in 1941, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men was published by Houghton Mifflin. The first printing opened with 31 photographs by Evans, with no captions, then the extensive writing of Agee. It was a very unusual design and layout for a book of this type. What’s more interesting to me is that, in 1960, after Agee’s death, a second edition was released. The second edition contained twice as many photographs as the first (62) and an essay by Walker Evans. Some of the images he included weren’t even from Alabama and some had been taken when he worked for the Resettlement Administration. Bruce Jackson’s take on why Evans did this is an interesting one – “Perhaps he realized that this book was where his mark was being made and he had to become more of a presence in it than he had in the first edition.”

2. Errol Morris and James Curtis wrote a great article series called “The Case of the Inappropriate Alarm Clock“, which addresses long-held theories about manipulation of photos and settings, posing elements of photographs, and the larger concept of purpose and identity of the FSA. It’s an extremely wordy and heavily footnoted series, but it’s well worth the read. Rothstein, Lange, and Evans are discussed at length.

3. You can access all the entire FSA archive (and many other great images) at the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Online Catalog. What does this mean? Well it means you can spend hours and hours online pouring over photographic history AND you can download high resolution TIFF files and make your very own prints to hang on your walls. How cool is that?

I had the good fortune of being one of ten applicants selected to attend a workshop with Ernesto Bazan hosted by the Duke Center for Documentary Studies on Thursday, February 18. I’ve been to CDS many times to see exhibits and listen to lectures and for a long time, I’ve wanted to take a class there. For one reason or another, I’ve held off on signing up for a class, that is until yesterday. I was able to get one of the last remaining spots in the Seminar in Documentary Studies class, which meets Tuesday nights for eight weeks.

The course description states that “through short readings, close examination of several documentary projects, and guest speakers who will present their own projects and perspectives on the documentary experience, you will gain a broad introduction to the diverse fields that comprise documentary studies. We emphasize not only methodologies, but also philosophies and ethics of fieldwork in different settings. Throughout the term, students will explore fieldwork examples and, at the final meeting, will present preliminary projects of their own. These projects may be the beginning of long-term documentary initiatives, or simply a means of helping decide directions for future projects.” I’m also excited that we’re going to learn how to write a proposal for a viable documentary project.

So, last night was the first night of class. We were introduced to our instructor, Joy Salyers, and spent some time introducing ourselves, talking about our backgrounds, and our individual goals for the course. The class (15 students plus instructor) meets in the library at CDS (left image). We went through the syllabus and the administrative housekeeping before breaking for 20 minutes to go downstairs and view Pac McLaurin’s work entitled “Walls That Speak” (center image). I had an opportunity the previous week to view Pac’s work and was happy that the class, as a whole, got to view it as well. I was impressed not only with the work, but by the care for which he clearly had for his subjects (you can read more at the link). (On the way back to the library, I saw Dr. Tim Tyson, author of Blood Done Sign My Name and Senior Research Scholar at the CDS and Visiting Professor of American Christianity and Southern Culture in the Divinity School at Duke, in the hallway. I had just taken Katlyn and Cameron to see the film adaptation of the book Friday night and I wanted to tell him that we enjoyed the film and to thank him again for writing such an amazing book.) The class rejoined in the library and Joy asked us to first talk about what we noticed about the work, then to talk about how we felt about it. I had never stopped to think about the difference, but a light bulb went off for me when she said that and went on to explain. Later, we watched a three-minute clip of Spike Lee’s “When the Levees Broke” (right image) and discussed framing. We received a handout that outlined some key concepts of framing and worked as a group to answer some questions about the framing from the clip we watched, which we’ll share during next week’s class.

I’m very excited about this class and, dare I say, even excited about the homework.

I have to read the following:
James Curtis, “Making Sense of Documentary Photography”
Josh Braun, “A Brief History and Primer [of Documentary Film]”
Stephen Smith, “What the Hell is a Radio Documentary?”
bell hooks, “Talking Back”
James Agee, Preface, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
Bruce Jackson, “The Deceptive Anarchy of Let Us Now Praise Famous Men”

In addition to the reading, I have to answer the questions on the “Who Are You?” worksheet. I’ll try to provide updates from week to week and share some insights from the class. I’m looking forward to this journey!

(Apologies to James Pomerantz at A Photography Student for borrowing the idea to blog about photography, art, and school.)

On Thursday, January 21, I drove to Charleston, West Virginia to photograph a debate between Massey Energy’s CEO Don Blankenship (pictured above) and Robert Kennedy Jr. (pictured below), President of Waterkeeper Alliance. My goal was to drive from Raleigh to Charleston, shoot the event, then drive straight back to Raleigh, some 660+ miles round-trip. The debate, hosted by the University of Charleston, was titled Forum on the Future of Energy, and was intended to “advance the national discussion about U.S. energy policy and its impact on jobs, the environment, the economy, and national security.” The debate can be seen in its entirety here.

Having just driven this same route, and having a heck of time doing it (you can read more about that here), I was admittedly a little nervous about possibly getting stuck again. Fortunately, that didn’t happen. Other than some freezing rain in Bluefield, West Virginia, the drive was uneventful. I arrived in Charleston with plenty of time to pick up my media credential and scout the location in the rain, where I met Jordan Freeman. Jordan is an independent videographer and primary shooter for the documentary film Coal Country. It just so happened that I’ve been reading the companion book to the film and had it in the backseat of my car. Small world.

The event was well organized and the staff were very helpful in answering questions. The only issue I had was that 99% of the media folks that showed up were only given access to the overflow gymnasium where the event was being fed live. The lighting was horrible and you can only imagine the way sound carries in a gym. The staff did, however, make sure we had access to both participants after the debate.

Most of those who came to listen in the gym were miners and their families. There were a few from the environmental crowd, but they were easily drowned out by the applause that followed Mr. Blankenship’s rebuttals to Mr. Kennedy. I talked to a couple of guys who work at Massey’s Boone County, West Virginia Progress Coal operation, Todd Agosti, a purchasing manager and Kevin Deaton, a safety manager. They shared that they had both spent years working other jobs. Mr. Agosti managed a bank in Kentucky for six years and Mr. Deaton worked at the Toyota plant in Georgetown, Kentucky for seven years. Both men turned to coal for better pay and benefits. Mr. Agosti’s father was an underground miner. I asked him his thoughts on the decline of miners, specifically in West Virginia and Kentucky over the last three decades. Some figures suggest there were more than 250,000 coal miners in West Virginia in 1975. Today there are fewer than 20,000. Mr. Agosti said he felt that improvements in technology and the efficiency of new equipment were the primary reasons for the decline. “Thirty-five or forty years ago, you also had a man on an elevator that would push the button for you. Times have changed,” he said.

It’s true that times have changed, but the landscape in Central Appalachia is changing too. It’s being changed on a scale that few people can truly grasp, much less think about. As our nation continues to rely on coal for half of its electricity, there are issues that have to be addressed. How can we make sure jobs are created and stay in Central Appalachia? How do we still mine coal without leveling mountains in the process? How do we strike a balance between renewable energy and using our natural resources? How do you tell a miner that’s providing for his family that you want to shut his mine down and take his job? How do you tell a mother whose well has been contaminated with toxic sludge that coal, under the banner of national security, is more important than the health of her family?

There must be a balance of stable jobs and environmental responsibility in this region. We have to be able to mine coal without destroying the oldest mountains in the world and we have to be able to provide work for one of the poorest regions of the country. I doubt I’ll be around to see that kind of balance in my lifetime, but while I’m here, I’m going to use my cameras to bring as much attention to this issue as I can. These are real people and real issues that affect us all. Think about that the next time you flip the switch.

It wasn’t supposed to take that long. What should have been a 7-hour drive from Raleigh, North Carolina to South Williamson, Kentucky (roughly 350 miles), turned into a 39-hour adventure that included getting the last available hotel room in Hillsville, Virginia one night and sleeping in the car the following night in a Ruby Tuesday’s parking lot in Beckley, West Virginia. I planned on getting into Kentucky late Friday night, December 18, and shooting Saturday through early Wednesday, then heading back in time to be home for Christmas Eve. By the time I arrived, plans had been changed and the priority became finding a place to stay that had electricity. Thousands were without power, including my dad, with whom I planned to stay. After such an ordeal getting there, staying somewhere without power was out of the question. My cousin Shawna and her husband, Richie, were incredibly generous and opened their doors to me for all three nights of my stay.

This trip was supposed to be the first of many over the next year to take a closer at coal; the people who depend on it for jobs, the process in which it’s mined, and the impact it has on the environment, specifically to Appalachia. I found it ironic that the very place that produces so much of America’s coal was widely without electricity. Still, I was able to get some work done, meet some incredible people, and make a few images. And the drive home didn’t take nearly as long as the drive there.

There’s much more to come on this project and I hope the new year opens many doors. Thanks for stopping by.

I’ll be traveling to eastern Kentucky this weekend to visit family and work on my personal project about coal. So many people, myself included, don’t stop to think before using electricity. Where does it come from? How is it mined? Who are the people involved? I’m no fan of mountaintop removal coal mining, but it’s a much bigger issue that needs to be documented from both sides. There are people behind every issue and, on this trip, that’s who I’m looking for. More to follow.

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