The Three Disciplines

Erica McDonald

Erica McDonald is a Documentary photographer. Erica was asked to provide images in the following three disciplines: Camera Phone, Nude and Fashion.

"I'll never forget seeing one of Walker Evans' images, "Negro Church," for the first time. I was in high school on a weekend field trip to New York City. My class had a museum day, and I was moving along looking at images and chatting with friends when I came to his image. A surge of energy ran through me, and I felt my body rooted into place, while emotionally and intellectually, I felt transported away. I recall silently saying to myself over and over, "I get it, I understand what he is doing, I think I'd like to try to do something like that, too." What I saw wasn't just a document of a building, or just a church, it was one man's connection to a place and a time and a people - and a particular perspective that allowed space for my own experience. Seeing this image was an awakening and a calling to work towards using the medium to create relations amongst the viewer, the viewed, and myself as photographer.

Recently I have been looking more closely at the vernacular image, more specifically vintage found photos. For this project I have used my documentary sensibilities in selecting found images in my Three Disciplines, so my role is that of curator-photographer. I found and purchased images that, for me, work together to tell a mini documentary-style narrative and provide commentary on sharing self-representation photographs, in an era before the invention of the camera phone."

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