Lesley Ferguson BISIA 450 Midterm Project Proposal – Using Photography Unphotographically I cannot say quite when or how the idea of the “Kodak moment” came about. It was probably a tagline from an advertisement in the Fifties. Regardless of its creation, the concept of this “Kodak moment” has been adapted into our colloquial language, and become synonymous with a perfectly- photographed brief moment in time. In one of these single, flawless images one can see action, time, even emotion. But what of the moments on either side of the one trapped in the photograph? These photos are the ones surrounding that perfect one on the contact sheet, or deleted from the digital slideshow. Why aren’t they considered “Kodak moments”? Sometimes they can provide more insight into the scene that is depicted, and perhaps even more truth. One example that comes to mind is the “Young Lion” series of photographs that Joel Brodsky took of Jim Morrison from the band The Doors. The little known story behind the iconic Christ-pose is that Morrison was completely drunk during the photo shoot, and the drummer of the band, John Densmore, hypothesized that he had to hold his arms out to keep his balance, and the next photo on the contact sheet would show Morrison toppling out of frame. That photo was never printed or seen by anyone but the photographer, but that actually was a more accurate depiction of Morrison than the photos that are still famous today. The goal of my midterm project is to explore the neglected parallel world of the non-Kodak moments. Do these photographs actually have any merit? What is missing from these photographs that the perfect ones possess? Ideally, I will photograph actions or behaviors by people that are generally only seen depicted in those single, perfect photographs, and then form a kind of triptych of the images before, during, and after the “moment”. Hopefully being able to see all of the images together will give me and other photographers a better understanding of what makes certain images “perfect” and also learn to not dismiss other images because they lack that certain je ne sais quoi. .