The Final Photography And Self Class

Today I am attending the 4th and final Photography and Self class, sponsored by the Denver Public Library and the University of Denver. The group is half DU students and half senior citizens, and so, in addition to photography, there is an intergenerational element to it. I must admit, however, that taking "selfies" with my phone, which was what most of the sessions were about, was pretty challenging, especially the assignments that wanted you to depict your true inner self (I am originally from the South Side of Chicago, where we have no inner self). As for having to do everything through your smartphone, I find that truly difficult. As I have mentioned before, this class has made me feel very nostalgic about rotary dial phones. I keep thinking how wonderful that black phone located on its own shelf in the dining room of our old house in the Southside Brainerd neighborhood of Chicago truly was. No having to charge it, no spending hours trying to figure out how to send photos from it, and best of all, not having to figure out how to access your paperless ticket at the turnstile so you can get into the damn ballgame (that wasn't a class assignment, of course. I just thought I would mention it as long as I was ranting).  But the class was still a good experience, despite the technology issues. And yes, on the left is a self-portrait of me in front of the portraits of my Great Grandfather Jerry Spillard and Great Grandmother Mary Margaret Spillard, using the double-exposure and "grunge" features of the Snapseed Photo app. Weird but artistic. Perfect.