On April 22^nd, 2013, I submitted my last assignment for the course Digital Storytelling. I was asked to create a gallery of all ten images posted to my blog with the theme my people. Individuals had their own choice to self identify what my people meant to them. But, what did my people mean to me? Who are my people? Should I take pictures of just people? Starting this project was difficult. I could not begin to take pictures until I self defined my people.

Sitting in my room, I began to truly reflect on the theme. Similar to many things in my life, I found myself viewing this project sociologically. To me my people is synonymous with my community. Like most social science terms community is not easily defined due to its social construct nature. Consequently, trying to assure my definition matched the professors’ definition was destined to be difficult. The notion of community harkens a wide range of ideas, including trust, empathy, commitment, and unity, as well as the ideas of divergence, exclusion, hierarchy. By thinking about the project in terms of my communities I was able to widen my scope of who are my people.

Similar to the words streets, snowflake, and rivers, a community may vary in, size, meaning, and descriptions; however there is some characteristic that serves as common factor in establishing what is a community. Community can be defined geographically, by relationship, and the like. Analyzing the different ways community can be socially constructed I began to take pictures accordingly. I started with a geographical definition.

The first three pictures illustrate the many facets of who I am geographically.  I start off with a picture of Detroit. This picture was taking while on the freeway heading downtown. I wanted to illustrate conflict in this picture. Detroit has been listed one of the most dangerous cities and viewed as a place you should leave rather head towards. However, in this picture cars are heading toward Detroit in obvious route to the downtown skyline.  The next picture is of the words LSA. This picture represents my undergraduate community. I wanted to represent LSA because it is the largest college here at the university. Consequently, illustrating that I am apart of one of the largest communities on campus. I edited this photograph to highlight the LSA letters; this place less emphasis on a student’s book bag in the chair below the letters. The next pictures are of my work places. I wanted these to pictures to seem as similar as possible but yet different. In the picture of the admissions door the sign staff only shows the exclusivity of this office.  The OAMI office does not have a sign that show restrictions. If you look closely on the right side of the photo you can see a student. I wanted both pictures of my work place to be in color. The use of color made the words on the windows more legible and shows the other key focal points – students and sign.

The next sets of pictures are depicting my community by relationships. The level of closeness and/or candid’s of the picture are use to show the more personal relationships with individuals. The choice to use a close up or candid just varied on the situation in which these people were. The subtheme of these photos shows that I am a sister by blood and relationship. Each picture shows a true depiction of the person. The person is the main focus of the camera. These pictures are true portraits.  This section of the slide show starts with my little brother, then my best friends, and finally closing it out with close friends. One will experience a series of individual chilling and those having fun.

Below is my project of my community/ My people . Enjoy.