Stalking

Sometimes I feel like my major is all about stalking. While writing for the newspaper we had to become very adept at getting a hold of people. I remember a couple of articles where people were being particularly difficult to get in touch with, so I called their mobile and home phones, emailed them at several addresses, facebooked them, stopped by their offices and generally tried to be wherever they were going to be. For another assignment last semester we were even assigned a random house in the area and were required to find out everything we could about it using public records, including things like their tax records. It's all very interesting and all very stalkerish.

I was feeling particularly stalkerish during my last photo assignment. We were assigned to take a talking head, which is essentially a picture of someone talking. I think the idea was to go to a lecture or something of that sort, but I completely spaced the assignment and was forced to take pictures of random people on campus. This can be a very stalker-like activity. My favorite part of taking "stalker" pictures is the moment when whoever you're taking pictures of becomes suspicious, because it is that exact moment you proceed to pretend like you have no idea they exist. I feel like I've almost mastered the "I'm gazing into the distance, I have no idea why you thought I was taking a picture of you" look. Besides the slight discomfort associated with taking pictures of unsuspecting people after they catch you, I actually quite enjoy it. I love how with photojournalism you can capture moments of real life. It's really interesting to just observe the interactions people have, and I feel like your eyes can really be opened up to the beauty in the small things that happen everyday.

Below are some of the stalker photos I took for my last assignment. If you happen to find yourself in one of the pictures I'd like to say that I'm sorry, but I'm actually not.