Assignment 9
A Christmas Tree Story
Shopping for the family Christmas tree is a ritual that is fairly common in this country. From Thanksgiving until Christmas, families gather at the local gardening center or a pop-up Christmas tree lot to find just the right tree to become a family member for the next few weeks. The trees arrive at the garden center and are stacked against every spare fence line. The scene is strangely reminiscent of a mass gravesite. The sheer number and dense packing of the trees allow the men to scamper along the top of the trees, preparing the bound conifers to be unbound and carried to the metal pole display stands. As the customers strolled amongst the displays, I was struck by the different ways that each group went about adopting their tree. Some people are very particular, asking the attendant to spin the tree and measure it, asking questions about the type of pine and it's characteristics. Depending on the number of people in the group, the decision and discussion can go on for quite a while. Other people are just interested in the height and width, moving through the process in a less painstaking manner. The whole procession is then reversed, the tree pushed through a device, binding its branches back down, usually transferred to the roof of a car where it is secured for the trip home.
The irony of this ritual is that this tree will fulfill its duty in a few weeks and then subsequently and unceremoniously be dragged out to the curb. It will be forgotten, rigid, and dry, perhaps some strands of tinsel left caught in its branches.
When I returned to the same gardening center just two weeks later, the place where these trees had occupied was barren, a ghost town. There were a few stragglers, sadly isolated, waiting for a last-minute customer willing to overlook whatever flaw that the crowds before had deemed unwantable.
Reflection
This assignment had me stumped - every time I settled on a concept, the plan had to be scratched. I had planned to drive down to see my mom outside of Washington D.C., hoping to chronicle my journey for the assignment. My mother suddenly had to have emergency surgery and asked that I not take any chances; she and her doctor were worried about the current pandemic situation and her susceptibility for infection. My next option was to photograph my best friend's cat menagerie - she operates a cat & kitten rescue and she has a large failed adoption population in her apartment. I discussed the plan with Nafis, we discussed whether it was a story about the cats or the people living with 9 cats (and a giant Rotweiller), and I had a plan! They were agreeable to me hanging around for days if needed, everything seemed to be coming together nicely. Then both of them came down with Covid and I had to start over. I was solo this Thanksgiving and was only planning to have a meal with two close friends. I wasn't really excited about cooking and cajoling my friends into being photographic victims. I began to ponder the holiday season, thinking about the rituals most families have around this time of year. For many families, there is an established tradition of coming together to find the family tree. This is one of my favorite holiday rituals and an outing I always look forward to. I drove over to my regular garden center and asked the manager and the tree supervisor for permission to hang around for a few hours on Friday after Thanksgiving. I explained to them that I had a photo assignment and that I wanted to take pictures of the trees, decorations, and the people buying them. The tree supervisor was not worried at all about having me around, but the manager asked a lot of questions, pointedly telling me that it was one of the busiest days of the year for them - and - I better not upset the customers! I chose my telephoto lens so that I could get some distance between me and the subjects, I certainly didn't want to upset anyone! I encountered my first major problem almost immediately. I found that trying to focus was taking a lot of time and that it tended to alert people that I was, in fact, photographing them, which took away any hope of capturing natural moments. Some people were starting to look irritated too, and I worried about getting shut down by the management. With people and children moving quickly, I made the decision to resort to auto-focus. The light wasn't great so I pushed my ISO up to 1600.
My first submission was derivative and boring. After speaking with Leonie, I went back to the drawing board and decided to change the narrative, to focus on the trees as the characters in the story. If I had worked on this story longer, I would have continued to track the genesis of the tree lot. It was surprising how quickly Russell's inventory vanished. Then I would have subsequently taken photos of the dead trees on the curb, waiting to be taken away by the trash truck. Looking at the trees in this new light has caused me to really think about how fleeting these trees' moment in the spotlight is. I also thought it might be interesting to go photograph the fields after the trees have been harvested.
I definitely think I had a different impression of how to execute this assignment. I feel that while I missed the mark initially, I have learned more in the process. I guess it's true, you only learn from your mistakes.
-Kim