Q: So what is up with your Echolilia book?
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TA: Oh, I layed out a bunch of spreads with the Blurb software, printed out the screen shots of the spreads on inkjet paper and started to...oh just play with them. Look at them, see if they work as a project, see if this whole concept holds together.
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Q: Just you?
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TA: No. What I've been doing is tapping into my contemporaries here...the people I have a dialogue of sorts with. I isolate them by taking them to lunch, forcing them to sit down with these spreads and give me their take on the project. I don't really give them direction, just want to see where they go with it.
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Q: Who are you forcing to deal with this stuff?
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TA: Mark Richards, Emily Nathan, Suzy Poling, Thomas Broening, Amy MacWilliamson, and then my brother who was at the house the other day. I got good stuff from everyone. Took notes after I left the meeting...its like Review Santa Fe, but...better. More about furthering a project, not as much about getting a book deal, a gallery deal, etc.
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Q: Like what did you get? Gimme.
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TA: Lots of advice on working on the next step. What is the next step? Is it writing...maybe give him a voice in this. Maybe its more photographs shot collaboratively...maybe with a film camera and polaroid. Some were bumming about it being done on digital...which I understand...its just not as pretty as it could be, and she felt it showed a lack of commitment to the project. Might be something I need to live with. Someone else felt the Dad needed to have a voice in the photographs, a prescence in the series, and all of the coping mechanisms he's got. And then advice on acknowledging the diagnosis, the autism, finding a way to share that that has been part of this. Then someone was going off on trying to dig in and find and arc in this...find a climax in the series and use it to structure this non-literal arc. Then, she was big into me making shots with no kid or no object...just scene setting shots that show where this is all going on.
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Then killing shots for sure. I had some shots in the mix that were...like gentler...friendlier...I thought it would expand the range of emotions. This person was like...no, nix those. Keep it on the note that you can hit most consistently, most solidly. Let that note, that tone you hit with the photos and scans define the title of the project...they define "Echolilia", a word that no one will know what it means. Let the shots that define that best be the project, and nix everything else.
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Q: What do you think?
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TA: I couldn't agree more.
2 comments:
The photographic echos--your son's physical activities v. their graphic counterpart--might also benefit from additional content other than the 1 to 1 images. Repeating images with sight variations for instance. Photos are silent but reference sound. How does one represent that?
I would try letting him use finger paint on some glass. Let him pick the colors and ask him to draw a word he knows and another and another. Just a thought. I know this is serious, but it's truly developmental and he might enjoy participating using other mediums to express himself along with some good reinforcement thrown in by you too. Good luck and keep us posted.
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