Searching for Characters While Stalking in Camden ME
posted by Ian Summers on December 26th, 2009
The Center for Creative Imaging was a short-lived (1991-1994) school owned by Eastman Kodak. Its purpose was to teach digital imaging and related subject matter to artists, design professionals, photographers and production staff. Faculty members included Milton Glaser, Gregory Heisler, Graham Nash and Paul Davis. Katrin Eismann started as their first intern, A couple of years later the Photo Diva became the CCI Director of Education. Today Katrin is a well-respected Photoshop expert, teacher, author and chair of the Masters of Professional Studies in Digital Photography at the School of Visual Arts. I taught a week long class in creativity.
We spent a couple of days working on storytelling. Stories need characters and we found a way of developing them. I sent the class out to stalk people in Camden. Each student agreed to follow a person who struck their interest for about an hour. Based on the information gathered, students were encouraged to imagine their subject’s name, their occupation, their relationships with spouses and children, their purchases, etc. it was meant to be a kind of fictional reality. When classmates reassembled at CCI they named their subject, wrote a short biography, explained the conflicts and triumphs of their character’s life, and much more.
I invented some scenarios and we placed the characters into the stories. One was about two high school classmates who meet for the first time in twenty years. They recognized each other while waiting in line to board a windjammer sloop in Camden Harbor. Staying in character, we did improvisations. Some of the stories were ordinary; others were edgy. It was fun. It was yeasty.
We developed dozens of ideas for photographic storytelling that may not have developed without this gross assignment. It was gross because stalking is an invasion of privacy and illegal. I don’t know what got into me. Today we could sit in a Starbucks and have similar results without committing a crime.
I also participated in the stalking. I chose the tallest woman on Main Street and followed her into a bookstore. I could see the top of her head above the bookshelves. I heard her speak. The voice was familiar. I brazenly joined her in the aisle. She said, “hello-ooooooh,” warmly. I instantly recognized Julia Child. We spoke for a few minutes. I told her what we were doing. She said in her highly recognizable, unique and imitable voice. “How daring. People follow me all the time. I don’t like it very much.” I apologized. Ms. Child beamed a smile and carried on with her day.
Tags: Camden, character development, Julia Child, Maine, Stalking, storytelling
