I have changed the look of the site again. I know constantly changing the site is getting old, but I am looking for a theme that I really like so I can keep it and stop changing it. I am going to modify this current theme to match my color palette a little better, and I would also like to design a logo for myself that will appear on this site and on my photography site.

Last Friday I went to East St. Louis and had one of the worst days of shooting in my life. I talked to 4 or 5 different groups of people and everyone declined to have their picture taken. I was in East St. Louis for about 5 hours and didn’t take a single picture! I drove home and was extremely disappointed and discouraged. I wondered what I was doing up there, and why I should continue working on a project that seemed to be so difficult to accomplish. The discouragement of last Friday has worn off, and I am looking forward to delving back into the documentary and pressing on. I spoke with my professors this week, and I think I have decided to narrow my project down to a single large housing project within East St. Louis. A documentary on the entire city would not give me the depth and intimacy that I am looking for, and would not allow me to create close relationships with people. I am more interested in showing the lives of a few people, rather than the entire city, and I need to be able to have sustainable relationships that will help lead me to other people. I have already picked out which housing project I am going to be working on, and I will continue working there when I return tomorrow. My choice of shooting a single housing is reminiscent of Bruce Davidson’s East 100th Street documentary.

In other news, Emily has finally left town to go to school at Boyce Bible College in Louisville, KY. I can’t believe the summer is finally over and she is starting school on Monday! I knew the day would finally come when she would leave, but like everything else, it just crept up on me, and now the reality of not being able to spend time with her has hit me. So now I will be spending the majority of my Friday and Saturday nights at home for the time being. It’s hard to believe that I have lived in Illinois for two years now. That is really crazy for me to wrap my head around. It seems like only yesterday that my parents were moving me into this house and leaving me to start a new life on my own in graduate school.  I’m going to miss you Emily.