All about me

Well my name is Charday Laverty. I was born October 25, 1988. So I am a scorpio. (yes do it baby) But anyway about me. I am a youth in substitute care, that means that I am in foster care. I know who my mother is but I dont know who my father is. That is ok. That is life so like th only thing that i do now is live life. I use to have problems with moving houses all the time. It had gotten to the point to know I don't know how many houses I have been in. I basically lost count. I have been in homes, shelters, groups homes, you name it I have been there. But now I am in a good house with a loving family. Like Ijk am not going to go into my whole life story because like I am not the person to dwell. It helped form me into the woman that I am now.

I am currently am in high school living the life of grown woman. I have two jobs and I am taking a class at school. That is basically what my everyday life consist of. Ummmm.... I go to Frankford high school taking either AP classes or honors classes. I am about my business when it comes to work. I do a lot of public speaking all the time. I speak about foster care and I also speak about safe sex. That is so important to me. Those to things, making foster care better and making sure I talk to people about having safe sex. Umm... well that is where I am at now. I am a very friendly person. I speak to everyone regardless if i know them or not. I like to make sure that everyone around me is comfortable. The biggest thing about me that I think that everyone should know is that i love to talk and work on a computers.

Lastly, the I want to further my education at a four-year college. I want to take up broadcast journalism. I really want that to be my major, but Ialso want to minor in something with sompuiters. I haven't decided yet what though. After that I want to be a sports commentator. To be the first female NFL commentator and lastly to become the first female NFL referee. I want to be the first for a lot of things. Mostly though, I want to be happy. I am always the happy type of person so that is really a major. I want a family and to be happy.

It's all over!

Damn five weeks here already. Thats crazy. I really don't want to end this at all but i guess we got to. I first and foremost want to say that this was a good program and i really like it a lot. Know you know the adults was going to give us a last assignment so I guess that is what im bout to do.

1. What was your favorite part of the program and why?
I guess the best part was when Tracey and I had to interview Paula Marincola. That was one of the last things that we did but it was the best thing that I think that we did. ummm like I like that because Paula has done so much stuff and became so famous in th art world. Like i admire stuff like that. So Paula if your reading this thank you for yor interview like i enjoyed doing it the most.

2. In what ways do you feel you have contributed to the documentary?
Just the fact that I was in it is a contribution. I am a diva get it right. sike i wa just playing but on the real like I can say from the beginning I was the one that opened everyone to talk. I was the loud one who introduced everyone to everyone. Like so I guess i could say that i was the opening ice breaker. Plus i was the director for my group so i had to condct all the interviews. So i think that i played a major role in this movie.

3. How did working with the rest of the group shape your experience?
I think it made it worth while. Like they kept me going throughout this whole thing and i want to thank them for that. (tear)

4. What did you learn in this program that you didn't know before?
Everything. Like I didn't even know how to take a googd picture. Now i know how to take a picture and make a good movie adding in all the cut aways and stuff like that. I also learned about the composition of the photo is really important. Also nothing is too ugly for a photo.

5. How will you use any of the skills that you were taught during this program in the future? I am goignt o use them all especially the communications skill because then it can help with my career.


6. Has your preception of art changed during this program? If so, how?
I learned to understand it better basically. Like i learned that art is good and that when you look at it there is a story behind everything. also everything is art. Everything is beautiful in your own way.

7. Has your perception of documenatries changed during this program? If so, how?
A little bit. I use to thinkk that they were boring and all of them were like that. So over this little 5 weeks I have seen some really good ones. But overall the best one has yet to come out but can be viewed tomorrow. The Zoe Strauss documentary starring Charday Nicole Laverty- Anthony (sike).

8. What would you have changed about the program and why?
I wished it wouldn't have been so boring at times. I would change it because I lost some interest it at times and then I had to regain it. Like some of the things that did I thought was unnecessary. So it got boring.

9. Did the program help you improve on any skills or knowledge you aready had?
It help a whole hell of a lot with my communication skills. When i get older I am going to have to interview people a lot and now I can say that I got some new skills that is going to help with that and I have the program to thank fot that.

10. Do you plan on working with art, photography, or video anytime in the future? How has the program affected this?
At one point I wanted to be a news reporter. I still want to be one but I now want to be able to be behind the scenes now. Like I could work the camera as well as be on the camera. So I guess thats good. Like the program made me like that. It gave me a new passion for it.

11. Did the program meet you expectations? Why/why not?
Kind of. Like I thught that this thing was going to be boring. I didn't think that I could have gotten all that I did out of it. So I guess yu can say that it blew me away and wasn't what i expected it to be. I learned a whole lot. I really like the program.


Well that's it everyone will be missed hard and cazy. hugs and kisses to eveyone invovled. Thank you to everyone who helped. and Peace out. much love charday

Diane Arbus and Zoe Strauss

Zoe Strauss
Nina, 2005

The artist that I am comparing to Zoe is Diane Arbus. Both of them are contemporary artists. Although many people think the two artists are very similar, I find them very different.

Arbus tends to do a lot of series. She takes a lot of pictures that are in the same environment, like the nudist camps and the siamese twins. Zoe seems to take random pictures of things. I don't think she keeps with the same topic over and over again. Another think I think makes the two different is that in most of Zoe's pictures there is a personal relationship. She's in her neighborhood in her city. She has some sort of connection to the subjects. Diane Arbus goes all over to take her pictures. She doesn't just go to her neighborhood or stay in her city.

I picked Diane Arbus' picture Transvestite with Torn Stocking and Zoe's picture Nina. I liked both photos because of the facial expressions that both men have on their faces. From an objective point of view, both artists had the same sort of content in their photos. Another thing is that both of these photos are representational - anyone who looked at these photos would know what they are looking at. I think these two pictures are different because Diane Arbus uses a background. In her photo, you can clearly see that the man is sitting on the bed, but in Zoe's picture the background is out of focus so that you can't really see where he is.

As you can see, Diane Arbus and Zoe are completely different in their demeanors for their pictures, but the way they take the pictures is similar.

Other people's point of view

Ok throughout this week we have met a done a whole lot of things. We got to see the way people see and view Zoe. Everyone looks at a person different. Nobody has the same eyesight. Like us that work we know Zoe on a personal level. Like we be with her everyday for about six hours (too many hours). Like other people haven't got to no her like we know her.

So not only do they see her personally in a different way but they see her art work differently. Like when the students from the Whitney came. They had only met Zoe once but they studied her artwork. THey did a lot of comparison with her and a lot other artist.

The effect that Zoe's artwork has on other people is that i believe that it really makes people think about life and things that we have. I think especially the people who look at her art that are from Philadelphia. Like when you look at the pictures you see things that you would not see when you actually are just walking. I really believe that it can leave people with chills. Plus everyone that we interviewed on whenever weds. said that she was a big inspiration.

Zoe leaves me the effect that I love pictures now. It wasa time when I used to hate pictures but now I really like them. She makes me look at things differently. I look through things now. I love the camera now.

What makes a good documentary?

I think that a good documentary can be based on different types of topics. I think that a topic can be very hard to choose, but whatever it is it can be fun. I use to think that every documentary was boring because it would always be someone talking about one thing and something about history. I think that to stop one from being boring they need to have more interaction with different people. I don't think that it should only be one person talking for the whole time. I also think that if more people are having converstaion and acting like themselves it would be a whole lot better. It seems as if some people are more like robots and like they don't have a personality.

I have seen some documentaries since we have started this project, and yes, I have seen some boring documentaries but I have understood the different types so I don't look at them so boring now. I now see that some have to be straight forward and some can be fun. On the technical point I think that if the camera moves around and does some cut aways it would make people more interested. So what I'm trying to say if we are making the documentary and someone is talking about flowers we shold have the person on camera but then in the middles of maybe one of their sentences cut away and show some of the flowers that they were talking about. That would make the viewer visualize and understand more of what the person is talking about.

The documentary that I saw this week a documentary called Art:21 about the artist Pepon Osorio. He is a contemporary artist. Even though the documentary was someone talking I enjoyed it alot. I think that it was good because it showed more of Pepon's artwork rather then him talking. Also another aspect that I really enjoyed about the movie was that I could see all the different people engaging in his work. It made me really want to see what they were looking at.

So yes, I have learned about documentaries and that I have to be more open to the different topics. But best believe our documentary is not going to be crazy because Zoe is crazy.

What I want to know about Zoe

Ok so they asked my some question to write about and they were what do I want to know about Zoe, about her work, and about photography.

Well I am going to start with photography. I want to know everything about it because i have taken a lot of pictures an my finger be in the picture.