Their View of Life, The Meaning of Life Project

For my first action project in my Journalism course, I had to take on the responsibility to be a photojournalist and take a picture of someone who has specific view on the meaning of life. I had interviewed this person too, to try to get closer to their view of what life means to them. For my class and I to successfully interview somebody well, Noah Isackson, a crime journalist who interviews people for his job spoke to us about the most professional way to get the story from someone while still being respectful. He showed us how to keep your composure and how to be objective to what the interviewee is telling us. I am proud of this action project because it involved me taking a good picture of someone and pretend like I’m something I want to be. I enjoy taking photos and hope to one day do it for a living. I am also proud of this project because I got to get some insight and views from somebody else and what they think life is.

The Meaning of Life

I have taken a picture below of somebody who I always wanted to interview and curious to know what their meaning of life was. Marques Dukes (MD) is the one in this picture heading to work in the blistering cold, a few days after the 2015 Chicago blizzard. It was about 10 o'clock in the morning and I thought I’d capture a moment in time of him in the moment of his life. He was right outside of his home in the cold city at the time and he seemed to be cold. This photo has subjectivity because of my opinions and my feelings towards how I see this photo.

To explain the mechanics behind my picture and how I enhanced it, there are a few things I took into account to use such as; aperture/shutter, focus, and composition. There is no focus in this picture but there is a literal focus in this picture on MD in the snow. I applied the Rule of Thirds for the focus to direct on MD. The lighting / aperture in photo is natural light from the daytime sun behind the clouds.

 

DS, January 2015. As He Treads Through 

       

The meaning of life is sometimes a hard question to answer, especially when presented to you without notice. The meaning of life cannot be determined based off of the experiences you’ve been through, only because nothing is definite or consistent. When the meaning of life comes to mind, I think of the universe as whole and how its something we have that we can use for good or bad. Because I have strong religious belief, I do not think life ends when your physical body shuts down. I believe that we have a spiritual body inside of us and we continue to live our lives in another form, renewed and refreshed with better terms and laws somewhere else in the universe.

I interviewed someone who seems like they live quite the normal life. MD is an Independent Business Owner (IBO) of Amway Co. He is 21 years old and has had his share of life experiences. As a kid growing up, MD says that he was raised by his mother and grandmothers. Going to public school as a kid in the poverty stricken neighborhood of Englewood in the city of Chicago, MD has been exposed to violence, police brutality, and lies. When I asked MD what his meaning of life is, he became filled with great passion; he wanted to say so much about what it is, but realized that it can’t be determined. It’s unexplainable and can’t be summed up in a discussion or in a blog post. Finally, MD replied,“The question is very opinionated,”

He says this with a smirk on his face and explains because he has never been presented with such an opinionated question. He’s used to normal questions such as, “What do you want to eat?” or “how are you feeling?”. When presented with this question of “what’s your meaning life?” he can’t answer and do anything but feel intrigued. MD replies saying, “I don’t know what to say. I guess the meaning of life can’t be really determined. As much as I have been through I’m too spiritual to believe that life ends after we die, you know?”

As I nod my head and try to wrap my mind around how he has the same idea as my meaning of life I conclude the questions I had for him with a,

“Thank you and have a nice day.”

It's unbelievable to come across someone who has the same thougt as you on any topic, especially if it's something as deep as this. I assumed that he had a different mindset on what the meaning of life was because he's older than I am and we did not experience the same things when were younger. It's just simply amazing to know that you're not the only that thinks the same thing as somebody else. Not something this uncommon. I say that because people don't talk about the meaning of life everyday like they would talk about food, a movie or a t.v. show. It just surprised me and brought me to a shock and awe, which made me want to conclude the interview.