Personal Documentary – Mandy Buckner

The Personal Documentary Class at Flower City Arts Center is an outlet for photography students to practice critically looking at and discussing photo edits, essays and bodies of work. It also serves as a building block for the students to start making their own body of work and thinking of how to present their body of work in forms of edits.

Each week, the students shared their edits and their experiences during the pandemic. Together in class, we discussed what works and doesn’t work in the edits and the experiences in building our bodies of work. In just eight classes, each of the students were able to discover using photography as a tool to not only document their life but as an attempt to make sense of and/or cope with the world around us.

My vision for this class was for the students to have their own pop-up show for the last class as part of the learning experience, inviting members of the Flower City Arts Center community. Since that cannot happen, some students have chosen to display their work on this blog.

I joined Jason’s class to learn about street photography and finished with a meaningful collection showcasing the wonder my son displays while experiencing the world. I found that my son is my sanity. Even before the pandemic he keeps me grounded while also encouraging me to embrace the imaginary. Jason does a great job as an instructor. I felt very supported each week as I honed in on my focus for my final collection. Taking a class via Zoom seemed daunting but it was very doable and enjoyable.

Mandy Buckner