Contemplating whether to film again and Mark Laita

After 11 hours, I decided I wanted to stop filming Sean and go home. This was mostly because I had spent long enough filming to realise what I had done right and what needed to be changed the next time, but attrition also came into it. The question remains whether I will try re-filming him, and I need to ask Sean about this. Certainly, as he pointed out, a significant portion of his day - the evening - wasn't filmed, and this, quite apart from his rather social day job, casts him in a rather more solitary light, where he spends much of free time watching television, playing his guitar and trading securities. He offered at the end of filming to be available for another day so I could film his evening as well, although we didn't discuss filming his day again.

Via thesocietypages.com, I have come across a contemporary photographer who explores similar territory - one Mark Laita. According to his artist statement, his work revolves around the "growing chasm" in American society between rich and poor, and as such he contasts portrait photographs of people on different economic strands of society but with very clearly defined connections across a spectrum. Juxtapositions such as a homeless man versus a real estate developer (pictured below) work to counter presented ideals and cultural icons with the reality of of their role in society and the relationships they share with their polar opposites.

My project is similarly concerned with the tangible spheres of influence individuals occupy within society, but as my work is in video format it is intended as more of an exercise in documenting a period of living, rather than the presentation of a particular image.



















Source: http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2011/02/21/social-commentary-through-juxtaposition-the-work-of-mark-laita/