ASSIGNMENT 6: Oral History/Interviews

Please find three people, preferably from an older, a younger, and a peer-generation with whom to have a conversation about the photographic.

I’ll leave it up to you as to what questions you’d like to ask, and issues or experience to discuss; you are welcome use some of the framing questions from our Assignment 1: Initial Queries to engage your subjects, if that’s helpful.

In particular, see if you can discern your interviewees relationship to the photographic, both in everyday life, and as an aspect of memory/identity.

How do they use — as takers/snappers and consumers — photographs?

How do they experience them (e.g. through magazines, websites, cell phones, books, billboards?) — and what is their memory of growing up with images and their impact?

How important is the photographic to them? Do they feel images create a sense of connection or community? Are there particular images that resonate with them, either personal or public?

And, if they can estimate, what is the volume of images they take, per day/week/month (or used to take, if they no longer do)? What are they documenting? And how do they use their own images, for what purpose?

In sense, have your subjects consider what habituations they have, regarding the taking and the consuming/partaking of the photographic.

Also, have them share five iconic images with you, public and private (I’ll have a post on this shortly, sharing iconic public images in my memory).

Finally, include a discussion/summation of your interviews — what common and contrasting experiences emerge? What conclusions might you draw about the significance of the photographic for these different generations?

You can submit these as MP3 recordings or a podcast, as well as in transcript or summary form, but do include a text version of your closing thoughts/conclusions, regardless, as well as images they share, if available.