DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY PROJECT
This assignment was to take at least 100 photos over the summer. With each photo, there should be an explanation of what is shown in the photo, its importance and what the photographer wants the viewers to see. After doing some research on Paul Calhoun, he inspired me to look into my neighborhood and community.
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Inspiration |
For this project, I wanted to emphasize on the importance of my neighborhood. This summer, during my free time, I went to various places near my house I usually unconsciously frequent and spent quite the amount of time to see things in a different perspective.
The Apartment Complex and Walking Distance around it
Every since September of 2015, I lived in Golden Domes Apartments. Although I called this place home, I never really spent time walking around. I walked around Historic Mitchell Street until I hit Forest Home Avenue.
#1: 1643 is my building number, and it formerly bright golden colored numbers fade through time.
#5 The door to my home. Behind the heavy duty lock, I see that the Golden 102 into the wooden door. The door knob turns into a murky yellow due to the thousands of hands that touched it.
#9 Looking towards the left of the upstairs window showed how close the green trees were to the polluted highway.
#13 This fence divides the lavender plant emboired church from my run down apartment complex.
#17 The amenity of an indoor garage is not so luxurious as the thousands of cars running in and out of the garage left a dirt path on the ground along with a brick and dust stained garage door.
#21 Nature attempts to fight back as it takes a moldy form against an aging air conditioner
#25 The mold conquered the left side of the stairs while the concrete is chipped and erodes.
#29 The worn-down cones lie every where as they try to fix something broken
#33 Broken and rundown showcases wait to be thrown in landfills
#37 The gutter is filled with trash, further indicating that there is a lack of care in the community.
#41 From the street, the street lacks
#45 The Historic street is being replaced by weeds.
#49 The trash-ridden gutters and weeds however are left to survive.
#53 The empty shop foretells a building lacking sales.
#57 But the community is hit with a mural that attempts to call unity to the community in another way. By bring back the beauty.
#61 Someone added the much needed color to the dull colored building.
#65 The street gutters tells rusts and the concrete cracks overtime.
#69 Litter in a form of broken stuff does not help clean it up.
#73 I see the community using the finest techniques to compose a community synergizing
#77 The once functioning library is signal that there was a time where people had to move on away.
#81 From far away the it does help when shops cross are
#85 At one point, it may have been assumed that franchises are immune to the recession
#89 The "Historic' street should not be interpreted as run down but instead refurbished
#93 But a freshly painted store does help aid with the epidemic
#97
On my way back to the apartment, And encourage more restaurants to consider adding art like so, in order to give the community the push. #101 In the midst of the street pending construction, a piece of rusting metal is left on the ground.
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#2 From the garage, this notice remains mostly intact in the mostly brightly garage
#6 Through the open upstairs building window, I see my path from a higher standpoint from the ground. I notice the trees gleam ever more intense, compared to the screen of my phone.
#10 Walking through the rundown apartment complex illustrates my neighbors's reciprocating respect for the place.
#14 The stone steps back to the apartment complex was one of the original glories of the apartment complex that was saved.
#18 The parking block that has given in to the force of thousands of cars ramming into it displays idly waits not to be fixed, but to be rammed into again, scraping the concrete underneath it
#22 In a nearby house, the mismatched mailboxes show that efficiency is values more than design.
#26 Construction is underway as the worst of the concrete is attempted to be repaired.
#30 The cracked concrete is abandoned even as the painted street lines fade.
#34 The crack on the street leads to a run down alley is away from leads to blocks overfilled with houses.
#38 The brick path was path the clear path to the community was itself getting hidden by the weeds
#42 The community authorities are dormant, with a building freshly painted, but lacks the enthusiasm to reel people in.
#46 The cars that race passed the streets I cross for school leave their impressions.
#50 Empty, paint peeling store is left empty by nobody adding a life of passion into the space.
#54 The concrete floor is littered without care by the community.
#58 The various colors and triangles bring shape to the community.
#62 the artist is coloring over the waning community and is summoning color back.
#66 But a garden helps one sit and to look and reflect on the atmosphere.
#70 But the hope of a better community existing does help, as it is displayed through the murals.
#74 An abandoned library does not help improve the quality.
#78 A once welcoming library had the walkaway to walk through
#82 But then NO LOITERING sign is sometimes not a good sign.
#86 But Sometimes, they are not. A group effort is necessary to improve the community.
#90 A pot designated for plants is wasted for trash.
#94 A Foot Locker's aesthetic contrasts the street outside of it.
#98 This police call box is in
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#3 On the top floor of my building, through the grimey, I can see the tree and the brick St. Anthony's Church and School I walk pass everyday from a new height.
#7 Going upstairs in the apartment building shows that I never noticed how thin divided my neighbors and my family were.
#11 The architectural design of the stairs indicates that there was a time where this place was once nicely constructed, but the chipped stairs convey how it that receded through time.
#15 The chipped cinder blocks that complimented the architerual design of #11, is struggling to survive against time
#19 The autumn leaves from three seasons back show that the leaves were not to be consumed by nature, but instead left to die on concrete
#23 On the way to the house in #22, the metal fence warped over time against the no left turn sign
#27 The concrete cracks get deeper as the time for goes on.
#31 The once beautiful street is not longer appreciated with its empty buildings and worn down sidewalks and streets
#35 A closed beauty store filled with boxes wings and darkness are waiting to be bought.
#39 The weeds attempt grow through the synthetic rocks and dirt, emphasizing decay in the neighborhood.
#43 The "Historic Mitchell Street" bears electrical equipment that rusts.
#47 A local bakery uses its colors to pull me away from this industrial depression.
#51 The party shop dies as it streets lack of excitement foretells
#55 The public parking sign is not free from the vines and that surround it.
#59 A pipe leading to nowhere is now obscured by passionate colors of paint
#63 However their message can only go so far as overtime, maintenance matters in order to maintain their message
#67 A mural adds the stories that a bland city needs.
#71 A line of shops work to improve the aesthetic.
#75 The murals attracted the people to the city of Milwaukee
#79 The It's Stone Path way is now it left to fend off grass
#83 The cracks in pavement and chipping paint indicates that aesthetics does not matter.
#87 A misplaced toy eventually becomes litter that is meant to picked up
#91 graffiti on electrical boxes seemed a contributer to the recession
#95 Seat at a Butterfly garden bench would draw more people like me to help.
#99 A closed store I considered looking to.
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#4 A closer look at the tree and I notice that its green is a bright green, compare to thr dull green from my blurry memories of walking to school.
#8 The stained carpet on the building's stairs and beige colored walls come from years of tentants walking up the stairs with stained shoes and hands.
#12 The oddly placed satellite dishes illustrate how the architectural design of the place went to garbage as people started sacrifice it for personal entertainment.
#16 When turned around from photo #14, the stone steps lead to lush green trees attempting to obscure the street.
#20 An advertising plus to apartment complex dies as it is shut down by the state and withheld by rusty locks, screws and plywood.
#24 The vines cracked into the concrete wall over time as industrial maintenance wanes
#28 Eventually weather and time erode the paint on the walls and make the trash bins look more like what they are carrying. Efficiency takes over design as everything is squeezed together.
#32 Yet there was an attempt to keep the inside clean. The empty interior begs to be appreciated.
#36 The unusable tires are left to the curb as the people further reciprocate their love for their community through it.
#40 However, even in the riddled mess of the neighborhood, there are stores willing to improve the area/
#44 The old pipes lead to no where, attached to nothing
#48 The community adds flowers to a street that is very bleak.
#52 The tattered dogs forbidden sign against the rusty metal fence.
#56 The run down lot however does unite the community one way
#60 The paint beautifully defy the once dull colored bricks.
#64 The old mall cannot survive if people glued to their phones do not know that it exists.
#68 The violence holes that ridden a community does not help with the needs it has.
#72 I watch as the community intervenes.
#76 While the endless For Sale and For Lease signs signal to run away
#80 Across the street, an city electrical box is graffiti-zed, demonizing the neighborhood
#84 But efficiency and accommodation does
#88 A clean school aids in preventing the dull, dirty, ghetto stereotype.
#92 Slightly cracked paint does not aid in the refurbishment.
#96 A desk in front of a closed store would not be there.
#100 The messy interior of a closed store.
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