To Be Clear is the process book I made at the end of my first year at Cranbrook. I took a holistic approach to this assignment, considering my daily life as being inextricably linked to my creative practice.
I created a book that features photos from the previous two years, documenting my move from California to Michigan and the beginnings of my time in graduate school. Similar to Four Eyes and Wonderland, To Be Clear throws its viewers headfirst into a series of photographs without context. It nods to place and time without being explicit and juxtaposes the surreal with the sincere. Just after a candid photo of my mother looking at the ocean is an image of a Sims 3 character whose limbs are stretched due to a glitch.
These are all kinds of memories, real or not.
This photographic practice is also inspired by John Wilson, the creator of the television show How to with John Wilson. The show is a freeform documentary, starting with general topics and then shifting focus as Wilson reacts to events that happen during filming. An episode titled “How to Appreciate Wine” begins with interviews of wine connoisseurs and ends with Wilson stumbling into the baby shower of an energy drink company’s CEO, uninvited. 1
I wanted to channel some of this improvisational approach in my book, placing photos chronologically while including the detours that happened in between “important” moments in the book. The layout and photographic style of this book was inspired by the book Misplaced Fortunes by Ross Mantle.2
Mantle’s book begins with a collage that features every photo from the book, layered on top of each other. In designing my book, I looked to his stacked images, considering when I was presenting the contents of an image and when I was using layered images to create an environment into which a viewer could peer.3 Mantle’s book features a mix of images that jump between ambient photos of Appalachia to war reenactment sites, blending the artificial environment of reenactments with the tangible world around them.4
To Be Clear mixes personal photos, digital models, and otherworldly photos to evoke similar feelings in its viewers. Like casual storytelling between friends, wholehearted truths are said in the same breath as jokes. The stories wander, and are more about conveying the feeling than the narrative.