Appleton bar crawl

 For my final project I wanted to do an investigative photography series about something I had been thinking about alot. I had been thinking mostly about the immense presence of alcohol in Appleton Wisconsin as the country's most drunk city. More specifically, I wanted to look at college avenue which is the main drag of bars that leads right up to the college Lawrence University. Over three sessions at different times of day, I walked down college avenue taking pictures of bar signs and intense displays of alcohol for sale as a way of collecting the evidence of this presence of alcohol. I am not making a moral statement here, instead I am showing the viewer a visceral retelling of Appleton's drinking culture. I have two parts to this project, the main part is called bar crawl where I experimented with the shutter speed of my camera to give the intoxicated, blurry look to the bars I passed. I also took pictures from a low and intimidating angle for thematic emphasis. My second part is extra clear photos I took which were cheeky displays of alcohol in strange places for Appleton which are a little too lighthearted given the situation in Appleton. "The environment as a processor of information is propaganda. Propaganda ends where dialogue begins." (McLuhan 142). McLuhan points out how everything around us subliminally and supraliminally forms our inner monologues because our assumption of what is normal is so mailable and insecure in the information age. The collection of photos were displayed on my Instagram account.


"The Spins"

I used a Sony NEX-5 camera which automatically fixes the levels and focus of the picture to allow me to focus more on the framing and subject matter which I can edit in photoshop after. Reflecting back, I am glad I chose this subject because it had a strong effect on my peers who live in Appleton but never really considered the crowding of bars on College Avenue the way I presented it. Looking forward, I plan on buying a nice digital camera and making collages with photo projects I create to bring the evidence even closer together.


The previous 3 Instagram posts on my account make up the entire project

https://www.instagram.com/p/CzpsUcsLgi9knUm-5O2a2cuuy9EScZb7IZRYQM0/?img_index=1

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