I am planning to take my advanced students to 2 different nursing homes in the area. One is a VA home and the other one is just a general nursing home. I want them to do either photography or illustration along with audio and writing to create portraits from stories they have been told.
Thinking further on this idea, I thought I might ask some of the residents about what they had thought of becoming at one point in their life and never happened.
So far when I talk to anyone about my project I could have been a contender I find people have stories to tell me about how they thought about doing something else with their life and couldn't make it happen for a variety of reasons sometimes outside of their control and sometimes out of fear, circumstance, oppression, marriage, children, other responsibilities, lack of funds, resources, and courage.
Then I thought about all the aged women in the homes and wondered what they think about the rights and privileges women have now, as opposed to when they were young. So much has changed in fifty years that it makes me think some of these women in the homes might have unfulfilled dreams just because of the time they were born in. I thought wouldn't it be interesting to try and capture these women on camera showing me the contender they could have been or the story behind why it never happened. Somehow I am sad thinking about it. Perhaps my thoughts go back as always to my mother and how she was short changed.
