A Passion for Life

After our critiques in capstone class, I tweaked my multimedia piece and now it's even better!

Capstone Job Profile

This project has been a rollercoaster of access. My subject, Pat Dudenhoeffer, is a prolife advocate who has a very interesting story. He has always been prolife but really got involved in the movement approximately ten years after his ex-wife aborted his second child, an act according to him, that was part of a messy divorce. Through his prolife activities, Pat participates in sidewalk counseling outside of Planned Parenthood in Columbia, speaks to churches and other groups about prolife issues, and has begun to raise funds to open a pregnancy resource center in Jefferson City for girls in need. Additionally, Pat is a caretaker to his father who has COPD and Enphazema, as well as his wife who is gaining her dual citizenship and cannot drive, and his children. There was a time in this project that Pat got really busy with all his responsibilities, and I worried that the project would not come together. That’s when I found out about his father. I spoke with my professor and we came to the conclusion that the caretaker aspect was important to telling his story. Planned Parenthood was also somewhat difficult to shoot at, since they questioned why I was there through a use of a police officer, something I believe may have been to try and intimidate me into leaving. More than anything this project has taught me to go with the flow and preserve to make it work.

reading reaction

I thought the lammot reading was very interesting. Particularly I liked the looking around chapter because it stressed the importance of seeing the story that is really there rather than just the one you have in mind. So many times as photogs we have a specific idea in mind as to what we think the story is, but we really need to remember to let the story present itself to us. I also really liked when she talked about drop kicking your puppy, because I think in creative fields many times we are our own harshest critics.