Umbrella Project

For my Advanced Digital Photography class we mainly have one large project, our umbrella project. We had a choice of a subject we wanted to pursue, with not too many restrictions. Some people did studio lighting, others did a theme on drugs and alcohol, one person is doing a project on race. I wanted to pursue something with my faith.

At first I wanted to create images in the studio that shared my view on Christianity, being a Christian. I tried to find similar pieces of work, but had a hard time. Eventually I decided to go a different route. I figured it would be helpful to find out what people around me believe.

So instead of a studio assignment it turned into a documentary. What I do is find people, take their photo and ask them, "Who is God to you?" They then write it down and I eventually scan that piece of paper and place it next to their photograph.

I hope to do around 10-15 of them all at 16x20. This project has gone several revisions since I started a few months ago. Firstly, I want to focus on college age people. A recent sermon I heard said that more and more college age people are drifting away from religion. Secondly I want to print big. By printing larger, I wanted to make the images very immediate. I wanted the words bigger than life.

With this project, the people I document are now creating God in their image. It is extremely interesting to compare the writing to the people in the photographs. I am about halfway done, so let me know what you think.