drawing with light

Recently in multimedia production class (for which I am making this blog), we have been talking about photography, and the use of still images with audio stories. It's my favorite stuff; I love visual media. I got the photography bug when I was 16, and enrolled at my local community college to use their darkroom. There is just something romantic about film. I spent the summer trying to break my record time for the first step in developing: getting the film reel out of the canister with a can opener, loading it onto that plastic holder, all while in a locked closet with the lights off, of course. There was a lot of fumbling in the dark at that age.

I would be a photojournalist if I could make it work financially. I mean, if I could find a job and secure benefits doing it. Can you imagine what universal health coverage would do for people trying to do freelance photojournalism? Oy. My fingers are crossed.

I was adopted as an unofficial intern at a photo studio I had cold called while living with my dad this past summer. The owner and head photographer, Dave, taught me all sorts of stuff, from studio light setup to interacting with the people he was photographing. I was completely taken aback by his kindness--he even gave me his camera to shoot a few poses for a client. Then I remembered that I was in the midwest after 12 years on the eastern shore, where it's...every-man-for-himself, you could say.

So when I went on an alt break this December to study the democracy movement in Burma, I went with the intention of practicing photojournalism. To give it a shot with what knowledge I had, under the restricted schedule of the trip. I'd like to put up a slide show of photos on here...but I'm having issues uploading the photos into a slideshow gadget. The photo folder that I've synced with Picasa doesn't allow Blogger access to the folder for some sharing reason or another. Suggestions on how to fix this? But for now, I'll embed just one photo in this post. This little girl is the daughter of Burmese migrant workers, and is luckily in school in Thailand. Many children in border towns like Mae Sot are trained to "get the money" as early as they can speak. She was quiet for a moment, before flouncing back to a table in her single room school house.


Agape School. Mae Sot, Thailand. Photo by Brianna Townsend. January 2010.