A Self Portrait

In the first unit of the STEAM course Systems and Models we talked a lot about ourselves and the type of people we are. We took a bunch of different types of personality tests and really dove deep into who we are as people. For the Action Project in this unit, we were tasked with creating our own self portrait and write an artists statement. We had to create our own portrait and we could use any medium we wanted. I decided to use photography as my medium. I think that the easiest part of this project was picking a medium and executing the portrait. I really enjoy photography so it was cool to be able to play around with the photos for a project. The most difficult thing was choosing what the picture was going to be of. Over all I am very happy with my project.

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MF. ME. 2017.

The title of my portrait is “The Life of M”. I chose to use photography as my medium. My photo is an average 4’11 size when printed. My self portrait is a depiction of me and and everything that I enjoy in life. The top of my head from the bridge of my nose and up is pictured with other things I enjoy around me at the top of the photograph. My photograph shows me in the present time. It sheds light on the things that I like in my life and the things that help me stay happy. There are no other people in my photograph but the small things that represent me ties the girl in the photo (me) to my life.

In my photo I included the the enneagram test (I am a 7). I represented this by hiding a 7 above my head. I also included the Myers Briggs test. I represented this by including some things that resemble and extrovert as well as the word extrovert. I decided to include these two because they are rather similar but they also have differences. I think that my greatest quality is how outgoing I am. I am always up to do whatever and want to make life as fun as possible. I knew that placing the little things that represent my life in the background would bring some connection to that but, I wanted to be more direct with it so that people would be able to get a better understanding of the person I am. I wanted people to be able to understand why I took the photo instead of talking about the photo itself. I was given examples of this in my interview with Charlie Jensen. He told me that he “writes all of his artist statements for his work through my heart. I let that move my hands around the keyboard. I don’t only write about the art I did, I write about what made me want to capture the photo.”

In my project I wanted to look at the experiment that talked about how award winners live longer than the people that lose. Throughout that article is talks about how social status and high self esteem is something that everyone wants. I can see that in myself because although I have pretty high self esteem most of the time, there are times during the day where I doubt myself a little bit. Reading through this experiment helped me realize that self esteem issues are something that everyone faces and the fact of the matter is people need to realize their self worth to move forward and have a happy life. Another study I looked at was the Stanford Prison Experiment. The guards treated the prisoners very poorly because the power went to their head. Most of the people that played the guards had dominant personalities and, according to the DISC test I have a very dominant personality. I think that when people with that type of personality are placed in a place of power that title can cause them to make bad decisions. I think that when people with that personality are around others with the same personality in that type of situation, they can egg each other on to the point where it gets out of hand.

I chose to do a photograph because photography is something that has always been a part of my life. Since this project was a “self” portrait, I wanted to show myself and the things in my life. I chose to do this in this way because I think that it was a good way to represent myself. I want people to be able to understand the kind of person I am. I want people to feel like they know me better than they might already. I want them to be able to see things that I enjoy and the kinds of things that make me happy.

The road to creating this photo was long. I initially had to choose my medium which ended up being the easiest thing in this process because I have loved photography for a long time. After that I thought for a few days about how my photo would look. Would I be in it? Would I edit it? Once I felt solid on my idea I just had to execute it. I had to make sure everything was i the right places so that it looks natural. I think that was probably the hardest part of this entire process. I wanted to pick and choose the right objects behind me in the photo that would best represent me and what my life is. I think that this is now one of my favorite photos because it turned out exactly as I’d hoped and I think it’s a perfect representation of me.

The Meaning of Life

For the first Action Project of the Journalism course, we were tasked to interview someone about what they thought the meaning of life was. We had to compile all they said and write 1,000 words. We then had to take a picture of the person. In this unit we talked all about photo journalism. Something that was difficult for me in doing this project was figuring out what questions to ask. Something I enjoyed about this project was how open it was. We were able to ask so many different questions and get some very thoughtful responses.
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The Perks Of Being A Wallflower is one of my favorite movies/books. It’s all about love, friendship, sadness, and heartbreak. One of my favorite quotes from the movie is “Enjoy it. Because it’s happening.” The quote was said by Charlie--the main character in the film/novel. I love this quote because I think it speaks to everything that happens in life, good or bad. It shows that no matter what is happening in life, you have to keep your head up because it’s happening and you can’t change it. Life is a vast space full of opportunities so “What is the meaning of life?”

Mary is your average mom. She was born in Texas and raised in a suburb of Illinois. She moved to the city to become a grade school teacher. She currently teaches at a CPS language school in Old Town. She has taught many grades from eighth all the way down to third. She is a horse- loving prankster who loves her daughter.

As I lay on a blanket on the roof outside my bedroom, I look at all of the planes soaring through the sky. I hear my mom calling me “Maddie? I’m ready for the interview. Where are you?” I turn around, “On the roof, I’m coming in.” I grab my blanket and walk slowly back up to my window and climb through. I sit cross- legged on the white couch in my moms room while my mom sits down in front of me on her bed. “So mom, what is the meaning of life?” She sits and ponders for a couple minutes. “Mom?” I ask, checking if she is still listening. She finally breaks her silence.

“Do what you want to do, say what you wanna say, love who you wanna love and don’t worry what people think.” She says the last part with a smile. She stares down at my dog Lily who is making an unnecessary amount of noise and lifts her onto her bed. “You can see even with Lily that she's always smiling no matter what and her life is meaningful.” She walks across her room and looks in the mirror.

“Why do you think life is meaningful” I ask looking up from my computer. She looks to the ceiling, thinking about the question. “Not only do I get to do things that I want to do without worry from other people but I also get to give meaning to other people’s lives. A big part of it is to do things for other people and I think making other people lives meaningful is as important as making your own life meaningful. So doing kind things for others and treating all people with kindness is extremely important for making your own life happy. Doing kind things and being good to other people makes my life better but that's not why I do it…” She pauses, “It just goes along with it.”

She walks back over to her bed. I look through my prep sheet and pick another question. I turn to her, “What is your favorite thing in the world that makes your life better?” She thinks for what feels like hours. “You I guess…. Well really horses.” She sighs, “When I had you my life became 100 times more meaningful. It changed everything. It was another person that I was responsible for. To make happy, to feed, to love, to teach. I think having children is one of the best ways to, well for me, made my life meaningful. It wasn’t not meaningful before, but I think having kids changes people's lives. You are no longer only living for yourself you are now living for someone else.”

I took many pictures of my mom that evening. Some from close up, some from far away. It was too dark and cold to take them in the garden, so we took them inside the house. As I adjust the focus, she continues to move positions. I continue to snap pictures of her on my Canon camera. After careful consideration I chose this photo. I chose this one because I think it captures her in her best state: calm. I took it with the portrait setting on my camera so that everything in the background would be blurry so the photo would just focus on my mom.

MF. (MOM) 2016

Once the picture had been chosen, I started thinking long and hard about what my mom had already said. Besides the fact that she jokingly not jokingly said horses made her life go ‘round, she said some pretty true stuff. She got deep down into my questions and was able to give me thoughtful answers. “Did you think about this question all day or something?” I asked her. She started laughing, “Actually, I asked my 3rd graders what they thought the answer was. They gave some pretty 3rd grade answers, but then they started giving interesting ones. I thought about their answers and was able to gather some new ideas from what they had said.” She smiles, “To think I got advice for your Action Project from 8 year olds blows my mind,” she starts laughing. We sit in silence for a few minutes. “Alright. I have another question for you.” I say. “What came first, the chicken? Or the egg?” She groans, “Ugh you know I hate this question” She lays on her bed with her eyes closed, hopefully thinking about the incredibly annoying question I just asked her. She finally answers quietly. “I don't know. I was raised catholic, and to believe that God created everything in the world, including the world, but as I grew older, read more, and went to school more…” she begins to whisper. “I stopped believing in all that stuff, like creationism and realized that evolution is how humans came to be.

As the interview drew to a close I had just one more question for my mom “What is the best part about living?” I ask. She turns slowly to me. “Sleeping. Laughing. Making people smile and making people happy.” She asks me to repeat the question. I do. “Waking up after getting a full night’s sleep. That has to be the best feeling ever.”

Pinhole Camera

For the first action project in the Light, Sound, and Time class, we were asked to create a pinhole camera and take an image with it. The first unit of this class was called Light. We focused on different light waves and how they work. We went into depth about what kind of light waves there are in the universe and the math that goes along with it. We talked about the electromagnetic spectrum and the different waves you can measure using it and the way colors work. When it came to colors, we focused on the way colors are absorbed and reflected. I learned a lot about waves and the different parts of them and how to measure those. We covered a lot of math and it was all very helpful and useful and I think that I understood it all. This action project is about the way light can be used to take an image and the way that a dark room can create an image itself. The camera itself is just a cardboard canister and it can take an actual picture. I am very proud of the way my camera turned out.
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Pinhole With Cover. MF, 2016.

Pinhole Without Cover. MF, 2015

My pinhole camera captures light through a small hole in the aluminum. Depending on how big the hole is, the more light will go into the cardboard canister. The light will reflect the image onto the photo paper inside and the paper will show the photo once we develop it. While it does capture light, it is not an example of refraction. This is because as the rays pass through the lens, they don’t meet and come into contact with another medium so they are not refracting.


The camera I created was based on an experiment where the camera was as big as a wall and the room was completely black. The inside is black so you can control how much lights goes into the cardboard canister.The color black absorbs light while the color white reflects it. This is important because the photo paper is very light sensitive so in order for the image to come out, there needs to be no light getting in until you open the shutter. This camera ties into a lot of things we learned in this unit. It demonstrates the wave vs particle idea because it has light waves that pass through the small hole in the tin while it also leave particles behind in order for the image to show up. The light coming into the hole makes an image which uses energy. The electromagnetic spectrum is used because there are a lot of different light waves that come in through the hole.


The distance from my lens to my photo paper is 3.5 inches, the height of my pinhole is 4 inches. I decided to photograph my water bottle and the height of that is 10 inches, and the minimum distance away my camera can be in order to take a good picture is 5.25 inches.

Similar Triangles

My picture did not end up coming out but I still think that it was a great experience and I'm happy I got to try out creating a pinhole camera and developing a picture from it. I think my camera was not 100% light proof. I don't think that I painted the black on thick enough so a little bit of light was getting into the sides. If I were to do this again, I would want to make sure that my canister was completely black inside and that no light could get in except through the pinhole.

Pinhole Fail. MF, 2016.

Works Cited:

Theme, Pinhole. "The Pinhole Gallery." The Pinhole Gallery. Wordpress, 2016. Web. 16 Feb. 2016.