"Goodbye is Not Forever" - My Final Project in B&W photography 101

     So as the semester went on my professor and I both felt that I was much more conceptual in my work.  We were given technical tasks associated with a conceptual subject. (e.g. use of different angles on "childhood" or use of aperture on "ambiguous space")  Our final was a-whole-nother story.  We were told to create a cohesive body of work containing 6-8 photos.

     "Wait...what?  What's the theme?"

     "There is none.  It's up to you.  You have three weeks to come up with your concept, shoot 4 rolls, develop, and print your shots.  Ready, go!"

     

     So here I am, trying to come up with a truly unique and creative concept for my first real cohesive body of work.  I've taken individual shots and photos of events like weddings, but this is outside my usual comfort zone.  What is art to me?  One thing I think that is a requirement of art is that it must invoke some sort of emotional response.  If I look at a piece and don't feel anything, than it isn't very good art.  I decided that I wanted to come up with a narrative story to my body of work that would invoke a strong emotion.

My most successful shot of the semester was actually from our first assignment, so I decided to build the project around that photo.  I used it as the last photo in the series, but then wanted to come up with a story of why this photo happened.  I then came up with a sad narrative story about a man who leaves for war that parallels the real life story of Brandy and I, but instead of using people it would be told through the whimsical world of teddy bears.  In some way it almost confused me on how to feel.  The essence of the story is sad, but I couldn't help but smile because they are teddy bears.  When my professor heard about my concept she thought it could have gone very poorly and very boring, but because for a just a moment she forgot they were teddy bears I got an A.  She also enjoyed that each scene could easily be seen with real people engaging in even down to the fact that their dog was even a stuffed animal.  Over all I was very pleased on how it turned out.  

And I hope you enjoy it!

Goodbye is Not Forever

by Chris Gronde