Artist's Statement

Through my essay I wanted to properly and fairly document the essence of life in Vieau and the neighborhood around it. I’ll admit, when I first arrived I was very unsure of what was expected of me or what I was even going to find but I easily settled in and made some young friends in the process. I’ve gone to Vieau 3 times since I joined the program and each time I start off tutoring any students that haven’t completed their homework yet. Aside from quickly relearning long division, I learned how welcoming even the very youngest students were. I met students of ages that spanned six years and all of them seemed genuinely eager to be there and to learn from me. I haven’t seen work ethic like they exhibited in any other elementary schools I’ve been to and certainly not in my own school. I’ve heard the lazy Mexican stereotype and as much as I would like to believe stereotypes don’t influence me it may be part of the reason I was so surprised at the hardworking nature of everyone, staff and parents included. If I ever come across it again I have learned that it is a generality that should be directly argued against and I now posses the life experience to do so. In retrospect I shouldn’t have been surprised at the work ethic of everyone I met and talked to. After all, many, if not all, are facing greater adversity in their life than I have ever faced and I think they realize that they must continue to work in order to live the lives they came here for. The people in the Vieau neighborhood have a sense of purpose that I find enviable and perhaps it is their strong desire to better themselves that also makes them so friendly.

While working on my project these are the thoughts that kept me occupied. Somehow I had to show all of this with a few pictures and words. This was also my first time using a camera as my means of communication. I learned how difficult it can be to capture grand and intricate ideas with a single visual but I also found the power it could hold if done right. I’m not sure I ever did it quite right but hopefully between 8 photos I can get my message across. With the camera I also learned how constraining framing could make everything. It was stressful to try to fit complex concepts within my tiny viewfinder. I always felt like I was leaving too much out with my pictures but perhaps its better I didn’t get the pictures I wanted where it could have been overwhelming and confusing.