After we lose dad I plan on asking for a 6 month leave from work to pursue the book project I want to dedicate to my father. The project will be a series of portraits of children living in poiverty in Southeast Asia. I plan on shooting the portraits with a 5x7 view camera, they will be vertical photos of standing full figures. I want to have continuity in the book so shooting everything full figure and vertical should help accomplish that. The goal would be to show the humanity of the children, their joy (as most kids can be happy in the oppressive situations) as well as their difficulties and poverty. I would travel throughout Asia to make the pics, Burmese children in the Mae Sot garbage dumpThailand, Thai children Klong Toey slum Bangkok, Cambodia, Laos, Burma, Vietnam etc. I would need to make several thousand exposures which would eventually be edited down to a book of 50-75 portraits. The project might take 4 or 5 years to complete, I would also work on various other series during this initial 6 month opportunity.
Of course there is every chance that work will not allow me a leave, in that case I would take my 7 weeks of holidays and give the project a small short start. Later on when I have enough money saved I would quit my job and go to Asia for 6 months to make pics. Hopefully dad will be with us for a long time yet and all of these plans are for the distant future, but I fear not. I will need time to recover after dad is gone, I am sure I will go into a depression, the only way to push through that is to make pictures which always gives me joy and helps me forget personal problems. Working hard and making pictures to put into the dad book is the best way I know how to move forward in life without my father.
Of course there is every chance that work will not allow me a leave, in that case I would take my 7 weeks of holidays and give the project a small short start. Later on when I have enough money saved I would quit my job and go to Asia for 6 months to make pics. Hopefully dad will be with us for a long time yet and all of these plans are for the distant future, but I fear not. I will need time to recover after dad is gone, I am sure I will go into a depression, the only way to push through that is to make pictures which always gives me joy and helps me forget personal problems. Working hard and making pictures to put into the dad book is the best way I know how to move forward in life without my father.
