Becky Reed and Professor Paul Adams, Fine Arts and Communications

For my ORCA project I photographed people who live in mobile park homes. I did this in the community where I went to school and my parent’s community. All of the people photographed for my show were strangers to me; I simply knocked on their door and asked if I could photograph them. For my exhibit I chose my favorite twelve photographs to be displayed as framed forty by thirty prints. A large format camera was used so that high quality could be maintained. I also used studio lighting on most of the photographs. The time I took setting up equipment was spent on getting to know the residents that I was photographing. I felt that this interaction between me and my subject was an important part of my project. Because of this I wrote short paragraphs next to each photo about my experiences getting to know my subjects.

Knocking on strangers doors is an intimidating task. I found that the hardest part of this project was conquering my own fear and going out and taking photographs. Not surprisingly I was sometimes rejected in my quest to photograph strangers. However, most people agreed to let me photograph them. For most of the photography shoots I tried to print a copy on location or I later emailed my subjects a copy for their own personal use.

To date this work has been displayed at the Harris Fine Art center at Brigham Young University. I was also able to have one photograph published in JPEG Magazine, an international magazine for photography. My portfolio of this work helped me to get an internship at Rubberball Productions. I am now living aboard in China. I am currently trying to acquire an exhibit for this work in the Nanjing Contemporary art museum.

After photographing mobile park homes I feel that I am better prepared to photograph in situations that are not always comfortable for me as a photographer. This new confidence in my ability to attain what I had previously thought out of reach, has given me inspiration as I now live and photograph in China.