Assignment 1 - Ella Franklin

Howdy - Ella Franklin

Hi I'm Ella Franklin!

My favorite thing I did all summer was hanging out with friends. I made some new friends in summer gym, as miserable as it was, and also volunteered some at the Living Arts and Science Center, where helped little kids paint all day. I also went to debate camp, which I did not enjoy. I failed my driver's test twice over the summer, so I spent many evenings at the DMV parallel parking. I passed on my third time.

If I had a superpower, it would be mind-reading so I could sense when someone was about to ask me what superpower I would have if I could have a superpower so I could leave before they ask me the question. It's impossible to come up with a unique answer for it and it doesn't tell you anything about me. :)

My personal an academic goals for this year are, first and foremost, to get straight A's. Aside from that, I want to find some extracurriculars that I really enjoy and commit to them wholeheartedly. I'd like to think my underclassmen years have been experimentation and now it's time to settle down.

PICTURE: This is my favorite picture from this summer. I have a camera of my own, but sometimes I pass it to someone else if I want a picture of myself. My brother criticizes me for just having a professional camera for better Instagrams, but that's just his pretense kicking in. I just don't like to live behind the camera. Anyways, the picture is of Emily Salamanca and me. We hung out a lot over the summer because she can drive and I failed my test twice so if I wanted to go to Common Grounds she could take me. I think this is somewhat a thesis of the summer. It was taken at Wal-Mart, which is ratty and fluorescents make for terrible lighting but that's just where life had taken me and I wanted to capture it!


WEBSITE: http://www.nytimes.com/video/on-the-street
This is the website of the NY Times video channel of Bill Cunningham. Cunningham is an amazing photographer who brought the runway to the streets. Before he started, no one was documenting fashion that wasn't only on the runway. When Cunningham was given his first camera by fellow photographer David Montgomery, who told him, "Use it like a notebook." He took to the streets and began photographing the fashion. Anything he saw and liked he photographed. He was the most important wallflower of New York. Never accepting a meal at a dinner party he attended, there to do his job and only his job. For someone who entirely changed where we see fashion, to show us that the models aren't just on the runway but are inside all of us, he was unnecessarily modest. This website is the videos he does to correspond with his daily spread in the NY Times. Mr. Cunningham died in June of this year, but his impact on fashion stays strong yet silent. (That sounds like a canned obituary for Bill Cunningham but I promise it's my genuine opinion.) The videos are really amazing in how he connects the patterns he sees throughout a giving week, it's worth checking out.

Thanks!