Author: r.turley

https://rachelturley.exposure.co/skela

I plan to do my project on a musician, Skela. She just put out an EP and is getting a lot of buzz around that so the piece is timely. I want it to be more of a feature project, trace back her roots as a Queens girl and the path of making it as a musician in NYC. The struggle of flying between LA and New York and the frustration of having to be good on social media being just as important as making good music. There’s a lot to say about how the music world is in the middle of a drastic change and how smaller musicians are grappling with the direction it’s falling into. Visually I think this would be great, I plan to follow her around as she works with producers and is writing and recording more music. I’d interview her and a few people in her life and also include footage of her performing and on-set on photoshoots. The 800 word piece would focus more on being a feature piece around Skela and the interview I get from her. I’ve already gotten permission from Skela and her record company to film and use her music.

Ever since over 50 women have come forward with sexual assault allegations against Harvey Weinstein, America has had to take a hard look at how it has let sexual harassment go unchecked within liberal institutions. Unfortunately, Hollywood is not the only overwhelmingly leftist community that has been enabling a predator for years. The retail chain, Urban Outfitters, is, like Hollywood, unapologetically politically left-leaning, demonstrated by the sale of pro-Bernie and Hillary t-shirts alongside anti-trump memorabilia. It would shock it’s overwhelmingly leftist customer base if it knew current and former employees have claimed the company has a problematic environment of sexual harassment, and the enabling and mismanagement of it.

1.) My first idea is to interview a DACA recipient, and get their story while including news of the Trump Administration’s newest legislation.

2.) Second idea is to interview a survivor of the Las Vegas terrorist attack last week, also do a history of the NRA, interview someone that represents the association. Maybe a gun shop owner.

3.) Third idea is to interview workers at the biggest urban outfitters in the world, profile what it’s like to work in that environment and the company itself.

A Walk Through 29 Rooms.

The exhibit I chose to focus on at Photoville was one entitled “insider/outsider”. It was put on by Women Photograph. Women Photograph is a coalition that supports women and non-binary visual journalists. A representative from the initiative was there and was kind enough to speak with me about her time working with the organization and her work as an independent photographer. She also explained the exhibit to me, how the terminology of “insider” and “outsider” was completely objective and up to the photographer on how they saw themselves and their contribution to the project. The defintion on what exactly was an “insider” and an “outsider” was also one of the themes I saw a handful of the photographers play with. It was up to them to decide if they were the outsider, or their subject was, or what even was an outsider. There seemed to be an equal number of both insider and outsider photo contributions hanging on their separate walls. it was one of the most busy crates I came across at the event.

One of the most striking photos was a photograph of a mother and her daughter (above) wrapped in a blanket. I found it so appealing because of the juxtaposition of the mother’s confident, stare straight on into the camera, while she does something as inviting and comforting as cradle her daughter in a blanket.