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The challenge for this project was to create a piece in 40 minutes. I was able to take the photos and edit them within this timeframe.

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Recently, my dad and I had a conversation about visiting home. I am unsure of where I'll go to college next year, and my parents are unsure if they will even live in Buffalo. We talked about coming home for the holidays, and what that would be like. My dad explained to me how it feels when he returns to his childhood home. The street is much smaller, the trailer is smaller, and the woods are smaller. Because of this, I wanted to make a piece about of your perception changes as you grow up. I decided to take a picture of my house and shrink it. You can see my sister standing next to it, realizing how much smaller the house really is, but her memory made it seem big.

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1. What is one thing you have learned about your topic over the course of making these SI works?
Memories are a lot more difficult that I thought. I am actually having trouble thinking of memories and translating them into art.

2. What is one technique or skill you have learned over the course of making these SI works?
I have learned a lot about exploring different aspects of photography. I normally only photograph people, so using inanimate objects instead was a huge challenge.

3. What do you want to learn about your topic?
I want to explore more about changes/contrast in memories, and memories being distorted. Also with memories being forgotten/ remembered wrong.

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For my third Sustained Investigation piece, I took inspiration from the German photographer Thomas Friedrich Schaefer's series Experiential Spaces. In these works, he focused on recreating his childhood memories. My inquiry question is "What memories do we remember and why?" I began with investigating memories in general, but with this inspiration I have narrowed down to my memories.
For this piece I continued using my preferred medium of digital photography. The memory I chose was Chanukah. Some of my favorite childhood memories include lighting the candles and picking out a present from a big bag for eight days out of every year. I decided to portray the menorah being lit, as well as a dreidel spinning. Each person in my family has their own menorah, and this one is mine. I've had it for as long as I can remember, representing all the memories it holds.
Experiential Spaces #3 portrays a Christmas tree, so this was my families' interpretation.

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This is the picture I gathered of my dad driving. This was actually taken on a drive that we took to distract me when I wasn't doing well.
I'm still unsure of how I want to physically present and organize the photos, so guidance on this would be helpful.

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The question I’m considering is “why do we remember what we remember?” and “what memories fade over time?” I am going to be focusing on capturing the different stages of life from pregnancy to death, starting the series with photos from a baby shower and ending it with pictures of rocking chairs. At the beginning of the series the colors will be bright and cheery, but as time goes on they will fade - just like memory does. "Childhood Memories" the second work in the series. I did not want to only focus on what happens at each stage of life, but the memories behind them. For this piece I focused on the simplistic pleasures of childhood, such as your favorite stuffed animal. Although this teddy bear is missing an eye and a leg, you can tell how loved it has been. Just seeing the bear bring up memories for everyone. When I first thought of childhood memories, I thought of the letter blocks and learning how to read, so I knew I wanted to include that. I struggled to work with the shadows, and find the perfect way to stack the blocks, but I came to the conclusion that it did not have to be perfect because being simple and carefree is one of the best parts of childhood.

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The question I am considering is "why do we remember what we remember?" and "what memories fade overtime?"

This work is still in progress, but I am taking inspiration from chapter 28 of Camera Lucida by Roland Barthes. In this chapter, he talks about seeing a picture of his late mother, and how this triggered other memories.
This piece will be a collection of photographs of my personal memories that are triggered by this photograph.
This photo is a picture of me at 10 years old in front of the graves of my Grandma Linda and Aunt Casey. They both died in 2009 within the span of 8 months, so visiting has always been emotional for my family. Although I do not have the best memory, this day is one of the few that I remember very well. The day before I had just won the 5th grade award at school and a contest on the radio. The morning this was taken, my dad and I took a road trip to Michigan. My dad and I have always been close, so I remember being beyond excited for this trip, just the two of us. While I drank a red Gatorade, I got to read all the directions to him while he drove. Thinking about that drive makes me think of the drives around my neighborhood that my dad and I take when I am not feeling good.
This was the first time in years that I had visited their graves, so I was set on doing something special. We went to Meijer's and spent some time in the University of Michigan section, then went to find something to leave at the graves. We found a metal garden stake that looked like a daisy. We then grabbed Sharpies so I could write a message. This became a tradition that we do every time we visit Michigan; I have even passed this onto my sister. We have also freshened the writing on the stake in recent years, showing how memories can fade and come back. Thinking about leaving the yard stakes reminded me of another trip to the graves. It is Jewish tradition to leave stones on top of graves, so one time that my mom, went with us, she passed this on to me. I remember clearly looking for the best and prettiest stones to leave on my aunt and grandma's graves. Still to this day, bringing the two sides of my family together are my favorite memories.

I plan on making a flip book to show this process of memories being triggered. The first and last pictures will be the image above of me placing the original stakes in the ground. The images in between will be of my dad driving, stones, Gatorade, me winning the award, etc. My purpose is to show all of the small memories that can be found after seeing one picture. These are all things I probably would not have though of, if not for this picture above.

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- Baby shower
- ABC letter blocks
- Middle school (maybe my sister/my neighbors)
- high school (my daily life)
- my grandparents
- rocking chairs

- holidays!!!! (thanksgiving, Chanukah, etc.)