Week Three

The article I chose was “Does Binge-Watching Make Us Depressed? Good Question” (http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2015/02/04/383527370/does-binge-watching-make-us-depressed-good-question). I chose this article because I think it really connects to a large percentage of people on campus. A lot of my friends burn through shows and procrastinate. I feel that constantly being in your room alone watching a show can definitely lead to depression. You are not doing anything but looking at a screen. Even though the shows can be funny and interesting I feel that people start to connect their lives to the shows and ask questions such as “why isn’t my life like this?”. I also feel that binge watching shows makes people less motivated to get their work done which leads to even more stress because one could be falling behind in classwork that they need to finish.

            The article states that “Once the researchers defined binge-watching, they set up surveys to see if people have the same response as they do to recognized bingeing disorders like binge-eating and binge-drinking.” I feel that this is an extreme and of course binge-watching is not on the level of serious disorders but I feel like it really does bring people’s motivation and drive to a much lower level.

            For my photos I chose to photograph my two friends in their room mostly lying on their beds. I usually connect depression with staying in bed all day and not having social interaction. My photos are not accurate depictions of depression because depression ranges but I chose to focus on people who mostly stay in bed.

            I used a tripod to take these photos because I wanted them to be sharper and the lighting in the dorm rooms are hard to work with when just holding the camera. I also pulled one of the rolls because I have not yet done that. I wanted to experiment with lighting so that I could alter the appearance of the face and make it more eerie. I have always been interested in using lighting to affect my photos. I have not yet mastered the technique of altering photos with light and it is something I want to experiment with even more during the semester.

            After reading the article this was the first thing that came to mind to photograph. I tried a little bit to photograph one of my friends with their computer but in photo 1 we were told to not photograph modern day technology because it kind of messes with the whole idea of dark room photography. I also found that a lot of the photos with phones or other technology kind of came out cheesy or corny. Lastly, I also felt that my photos did not come out as eerie as I wanted them to. I think this is because my friends were trying to pose “normally” for the camera and my photos may have provoked different feelings if the facial expression were uncommon or offsetting.  Trying to depict depression is hard in photographs because depression isn’t just looking “sad” or “unhappy”. Next time I will look up more unsettling facial features in order to give my photos an off-putting vibe (such as Carrie Levi’s work).