It was a sunny day in Ann Arbor when some friends and I went on a Pokemon Go run. For the past couple of days, we had been painting at one apartment complex and had just finished that one earlier that morning. We drove over to the next location, but were unable to take our stuff inside as the management wasn’t ready for us yet. Instead of standing around, my friends and I decided to check out what the city had in store for us in terms of Pokemon.
Halfway through the walk, I realized my phone was almost dead (which most of you reading know is not anything strange). Suddenly, we saw the University of Michigan Museum of Art. Now, three of the guys were not big fans of art, but my friend Troy and I decided we wanted to check it out. We made sure it was open and had free admission and then we walked on in.
The first thing I noticed, before even seeing the art, was that the security guard had his eye on us. “Do we really look suspicious?” I wondered. Then I looked down and realized that we were still in our work clothes since we hadn’t had the time to change yet. So I guess seeing two young men covered in paint was a little strange. Regardless, I was there to look at the art so that’s what I did.
The main level had some pretty basic religious artwork, mostly paintings. They were pretty cool, but I’ve never really been into painting because I can’t do it myself. Sure, I appreciate the art form, it’s just hard for me to relate since I can’t do anything of that sort.
Then we walked upstairs and saw the summer exhibit "700 Nimes Road" by photographer Catherine Opie. The exhibit “documents the late actress Elizabeth Taylor's home, focusing on her mementos and knickknacks she had throughout her home.” As soon as we walked into the exhibit I was in awe. We walked around and I understood everything. Which is strange because some of the photos were of clothes and I’m not that into clothes. I don’t know much about Elizabeth Taylor, but after walking around the photo exhibit, I felt like I learned a lot about her.
I know, that was a sort of strange story. But my whole point is that photography speaks to me more than most other forms of art. It also made me realize that I want to pursue photography in some way, whether it’s taking a class or just taking pictures on my phone that I think are cool. The moral of the story is to take chances and explore the world in ways that you didn’t think you ever would. All we had planned was to go on a Pokemon Go run, but I ended up discovering something about myself by accident. It was definitely an interesting trip.
