Part 2 : Project 1 -Telling a Story

Exercise

• How does Bryony Campbell’s ‘The Dad Project’ compare with ‘Country Doctor’?

My first thoughts in comparing the two bodies of work was how much more personal ‘The Dad Project’ is.

Both of these pieces of work tell a story however I feel that the story of ‘The Country Doctor’ by W. Eugene Smith is more removed. Although Smith tells the story from an insiders viewpoint he was not emotionally attached to the subject. His story of a ‘Country Doctor’ feels factual and shows the varied and often difficult work of a rural doctor. Over the span of 23 days we are show a vast array of duties that this one Doctor has performed and we are given a sense of his importance to the community in which he now belongs. The text builds on this sense of ‘hero’ doctor that is irreplaceable from the community in a factual way, it mentions that he is paid less than a city doctor yet does more and that he rarely has days off.

http://time.com/3456085/w-eugene-smiths-landmark-photo-essay-country-doctor/

Bryony Campbell used a photo essay to document her father’s death from cancer. The word accompanying the text are moving and we are given a glimpse into private, personal moments. Campbell even appears in some of the images which creates the personal  link between photographer and viewer yet this story is more about her father. There is eye contact in this work which draws me in and makes it more emotive, and a use of symbols such as the fallen hair and the milkshake stain which lets the viewer draw their own narrative to the work.

 

• What do you think she means by ‘an ending without an ending’?

I believe that she used ‘The Dad Project’ as a grieving process and although her dad’s passing signalled the end of the filming and photographs the work continued. Campbell would still go on to edit and compile her work as well as present to inform others. People that viewed it would continue to take something from it and the work would continue to have an impact.