J.Eve Photo Project

Photography Project Jessica Shetler

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Name found in everyday city-life

Heavy Hearts

Recreation of an Artist’s work.

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B For my photo name sequence, I choose to focus on negative and positive space amongst us in our daily hectic city-lives. I decided to embark on this journey through chaos from an apartment building, finding a “J” created from rust and a leak in the room. Before I was out the door, I noticed letters in places I have never noticed before; like an “E” in the sidewalk, an “S” in a sculpture, an “I” in a door frame, a “C” in the arrangement on berries, and an “A” in the negative space of a sculpture in the heart of our city. This project did not only open my eyes to my everyday life, but taught me to look at things from multiple perspectives; How something can look like a certain letter at first, but if you turn your head to the right angle, another letter is seen.

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Heavy Hearts

By Jessica Shetler Dedicated to my father, Michael Shetler. I wish you everything you need in order to return home, and I wish our family endless strength to overcome the darkest days of our lives.

A This part of my project is dearly close to my heart. On September 2nd 2013, my father was in a cycling accident and is now in a coma. My father, like most, is the caretaker of our family. Having him in this state has brought darkness to our family, struggling everyday to stay strong and positive for his recovery. I cannot begin to express the pain in my heart, which only leaves me when I finally rest my head at the end of everyday. I decided to make my family’s daily struggle my “10 frame photo-story�. This story shows the early morning struggle of realization of our reality and him not being with us, finding strength to get though the day, finding faith while walking up to the hospital, staying strong as a family, how time races against us, the support received by family and friends, the need to cut the edge in order to go bed, and it finally ends with our family dog, his best friend, awaiting his return in the door. This photo segment does not give justice to the pain in my family and the daily struggle I am having as an artist, daughter, and student. This is the most tragic thing I have ever had to over come, and this darkness I would never wish upon anyone. I choose to feature each photograph on a separate page, so they can be fully observed, and they are in black and white because until his return to our family the world will be grey and our hearts will remain heavy.

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C

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“Open your eyes, you remember he is no longer beside you, when will he return, when will I be whole again?�

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J.EVE 4

Finding Strength and Balance in order to get through the day.

J.EVE 5

“It is no longer in our hands, may God give me faith in him, and strength to my father.�

J.EVE 6

“When will this nightmare end?

J.EVE 7

“Through sickness and health.”

J.EVE 8

“When your heart slips away as you leave that room, we are here to pick it up and remain strong as a family.”

J.EVE 9

“Where has the day gone?”

J.EVE 10

Truth is, you will never know how many people you have touched until a tragedy‌

J.EVE 11

Numb me for my reality is too much for me to be able to rest this tired eyes‌

J.EVE 12

“When will he return? Where could he be? Maybe Tomorrow… Maybe.”

J.EVE 13

Recreation of Robert Mapplethorpe

By Jessica Shetler

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J.EVE 15

My experience with photography was pleasant. I spent two semesters at John Abbott College taking a couple of photography courses, which gave the basics rules and things to take into account while pressing the button. I love photography due to the ability of demonstrating different point of views and perspectives. My biggest struggle with this project was taking something in my life that is so raw, fresh, and painful and getting behind a lens to capture it; using a camera is much more invasive than drawing a picture of this tragedy. I felt guilty for taking this nightmare and using it for school, I cannot explain it properly, however it felt wrong taking those photos in the hospital. Overall I love photography and will continue to use it as an artist and a human for capturing moments. This new experience with photography has opened up my eyes to use my skills in photography to capture things I wish to paint and draw; add an even more personal aspect to my art pieces.

It’s interesting before this project, I forgot how much I love photography and now thanks to it, I have found my admiration for it all over again.

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