Final Project: Dinner Table Conversations

In a time before when electronic devices did not seem to be an extension of our anatomy, people used to sit down every night at the dinner table and talk about how their day went and also about the current events. However, since we are bombarded with news everywhere we go, we began to avoid these talks at the dinner table because the news has become synonymous with “depression” and “sad.”

I’m the opposite way, to me the news is essential in everyday life. We need to know what is happening around us, depressing or not. Ignorance is not an excuse in a court of law and it shouldn’t be in life. Because of this, for my final project I decided to take social issues that I think are impacting the world around me. This are topics that I wished my family would talk about at the dinner table but don’t.

The images themselves serve in my belief as a photo essay, loosely inspired by the work of James Natchwey and Ralph Eugene Meatyard. Each image conveys a social topic which I have a strong opinion on. I also incorporated a mask in each image because they would serve as a symbol of what the topic is, allowing me to say a lot without actually needing words in the image. I also incorporated the methods that I somewhat “developed” over the semester when it came to photo editing, since every photo is edited in one way or another. Also, while I began to think of ideas of what I wanted to do, I had the Bob Dylan song The Times They Are a-Changin’

This work, Dinner Table Conversations, is split into four parts: each part has an overarching theme, and within each theme two images designed to talk about a specific point are present. This iteration contains images of topics that I think should be addressed and changes should happen to them. There were so many other topics I wanted to get into, but couldn’t get into because of time constraints. That said, I think I created a work that I will definitely go back to and continue exploring well outside this class. For now, I am happy with my work so far and glad I get to bring attention to these topics; maybe if I am lucky, it will make a change.

– J

Dinner Table Conversations