Scientific Studies in Photography
By Jerad DeBoard
25 February 2007
In the spring of 2006, a colleague and I started our last quarter of undergraduate course work at a university in Dayton, Ohio. Even though we had ten weeks left of our college career, we found ourselves in a bit of a debacle; we were delinquent four credit hours in classes other than science and mathematics. Upon viewing the course catalog, we noticed there was a class at a convenient time that we could both enroll in, Art 207: Intro to Photography. For the last 4 years we were enrolled in research psychology classes and thought it would be a breathe of fresh air to take a class that didn't rely on statistical analysis, lengthy term papers or supporting one's theory on the functionality of the basilar membrane.
Our photography instructor was very knowledgeable and presented us with a project entitled "Confrontation". This involved people's behavior to being photographed and using that anxiety to create art. With this explanation, he showed us some photos from a book called Russian Self Portraits by David Attie. If you're not familiar with Mr. Attie's work, he set up a camera and a lengthy shutter release cable in a subway, and asked people to "take their own picture". The photographs are amazing and the idea sparked an interest in my colleague and me.
We were trained like the scientist before us of the methodical steps one has to take to replicate a scientific study correctly, and most importantly, scientifically. We used the knowledge we learned from the scientific discipline and set out to replicate Mr. Attie's "experiment" on self-portraits.
We set out with a Pentax k1000, 20 foot shutter release cable and tripod to one of the busiest areas of campus. As fellow pupils passed by, we asked "Would you like to volunteer for a project for class?" most people were hesitant, and were highly baffled by the notion that they would be taking their own photograph. We had an amazing time replicating this project, and it became one of the highlights of my college career. Enjoy.
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