I hope you don’t mind if I talk a little more about Oscar during his birthday week.
During Oscar’s last winter here on this side, I was taking a couple of classes at DePaul University hoping to finish the degree I started a very, very long time ago. I didn’t accomplish that goal, but I did earn some credits from a wonderful class.
Since the class was centered around instant photography, I don’t think it’s offered any longer, at least not in the form I took it. You can still see the syllabus online.
At the time I did the second assignment for the class, I had no idea we’d be losing Oscar just a couple of months later. He was going through radiation treatment after surgery to remove his right eye along with the malignant tumor behind it, but he was handling it well at that time.
Oscar was the most willing subject in our household and was happy to go along with whatever I wanted him to do for my portraiture assignment. I decided to pose him in front of a variety of different open and closed doors, mostly at our house. To get the ten photos I submitted, I shot twice as many Polaroids. Shooting film, and especially instant film, makes you think about what you are doing.
Note: Some of the photos in the linked Flickr gallery are a little rough to look at, especially if you have or had a pet going through radiation treatment.
If you choose to click through and see Oscar and the doors, thank you. If not, I do understand. Either way, thanks for listening.
(NaBloPoMo | October ’10: 7 of 31)