Disconnecting the brain

I have to admire Mauro's dedication to rewiring 41 years of thought process in my own case. I have to take a semester off because I am teaching a new advanced photoshop class at my own university as I write it. It's a process that requires a lot of time to figure out what is needed and wanted by the students. 

Anyway, my last task was to shoot 100 images as fast as possible of my hand. The thought was that shooting this fast would remove any planning on my part. So I sat cross legged in front of a big window and just started shooting. I ended up with 103 images and 10 of them are shown here. I like that some of them don't even look like hands. I certainly did not plan these shots. Something totally new for me. 

Second Project

So Mauro is really trying to break me out of my 42 years of commercial photography head space. He has no idea how difficult this will be for him... and me. He's really trying to disconnect my brain and jump start my heart. 

For this project I am using a macro lens with very limited focus to relate to my super focus on one thing to the exclusion of everything else around me.

Also, people with ADD need to hold something in their hands as they look at it to have it enter their brains. The spoken word has no effect on us. Give us something (like an advertising layout) let me hold onto it and look at it and I will understand it. To that end I was tasked with capturing that connection between super focus, my hands and things that touch me emotionally. 

I bought this Harley Davidson leather jacket back in 1973. It doesn't even fit anymore but I feel a little heart tug every time I touch it.

Back in the mid 70's I bought leather camera bags (purses?) from a little shop on Greenwich Street in the Village. They only cost around $40.00 and held a Nikon F with three lenses. No one knew there were cameras in there. I love those bags. 

I was raised learning the piano. There was a real love / hate relationship there but one thing I really love is the glass ball claw foot piano stools. My sister and I used to turn it upside down, twirl it and the winner was closest to the glass ball with the bubble in it.

Since I was a kid, and every day I carried my portfolio around in NYC, I would buy a box of Good n Plenty. Ummmmm.

I have always had 6-8 cups of black coffee every day. That plus 20mg of Ritalin get me going and keep me from blurting things out without thinking. I love black coffee. 

There's no more hate for the piano. There is only love now that the lessons are long gone.

I love my wife and not only because she is a great cook!

These are most of the images from the second attempt. As I look at them, I think they are closer but I still may be thinking too much. It's hard not to.

The beginning

My name is Bill Truran and I will be 60 years old in 6 months. I have been an adjunct photography professor for William Paterson University since 2004. I began working on my MFA because you need that to be hired for real by the university. I have been a commercial photographer since 1972 and fully digital since 1994 so I have to admit I hoped I could kind-of skate by but my advisor Mauro Altamura had other ideas. Here is how it is going:
I began almost on my own. I let Mauro know that I wanted to focus on my ADD and the way it affected my life and work. I did what I normally do and produced 5 images that in a quirky kind-of way showed what living with ADD is like.

#1) Shows how difficult it is for one with ADD to read. We read the first paragraph, then re-read, then re-re-read. Then we move on to the next and instantly forget the paragraph before...

                                    

#2) Explains why people with ADD J-walk. If we stand with others on a corner waiting for the light to change, we will cross without thought and probably be hit by a bicycle. If we cross in the middle of the street while the traffic is moving we are fully focused knowing that we just might die. It really helps us be alert when crossing a city street.

                                      

3) Salt & Pepper... This seems to work two ways. First, when you can't remember anything as you grow up you tend to separate yourself from the group for protection. When grown, this separation morphs into leadership positions where the separation kind of raises you up and over. People with ADD make natural leaders.

                                      

4) Was fun and straight forward. People with ADD always fight the wall of forgetfulness that separates us from the rest of the world. 

5) Was the last in this initial series. It seems to be the least subtile. This is what it is often like to converse with someone with ADD. We aren't ignoring you on purpose but in desperately trying to hold onto our response we often can't hear what you are saying even though we are looking at you.

So there you go. 5 shots involving huge productions and Mauro says to me: Great work but they look like advertisements for ADD medication. Where is the heart?

What? Doesn't he realize that I don't ever access my emotions? Doesn't he know that I never consider my feelings? Hummm, I think he does and that is where the fun and work really started.