With the final component of my first project completed, it’s time to say goodbye to the family I’ve been working with for the last seven weeks. I’m excited for the milestone of finishing the first half of J2150, but I’m sad to bring my visits with my subject to an end. He and his family were incredibly kind and generous during the entire process, and I feel lucky to have been able to meet them and tell their son’s story. I hope my project can be of some use to him in the future.
Now, I get to do the project all over again with someone new. The next victim is Ann Glavan, an MU student and equestrian. She boards her horse, Lucky, in Rocheport and competes in Kansas City and St. Louis. During this project, we will catch her at Lake St. Louis to compete for the title of grand champion. She is also an aspiring journalist who would like to write for equine magazines. She has already written professionally for Phelps Media Group and Chronicle of the Horse, and has been asked to drop out of school to write full time by some of her supervisors.
I’m really looking forward to working with her, not only to get to know someone new, like my last subject, but also to snag some tips from her about how to intern with some pretty big-time publications! I’m also excited about working in the barn with her. I rode horses throughout most of my childhood, and I miss the atmosphere.
I anticipate getting most of our photography at the barn while she practices, trains and cares for Lucky. The audio there will also be really interesting – stall doors, buckets, hooves, gaits (and gates), hoses, brushes, tack clinking, boots, you name it. We will follow Ann and Lucky with video cameras at her show for the video component so that we can capture a complex environment more easily and in a short amount of time. The story will cover her accomplishments in journalism and plans for the future because of the relatively few visuals that go along with those components. All in all, I’m expecting a really solid and interesting final project.