For my first unit in Journalism I had to interview a person with a unique meaning of life and try to capture that with an image of them. I decided to interview my teacher, who has been a mentor and a friend to me throughout the years because he has influenced the way I see the world and has a very unique background that was influenced by his view on life. The project was not that challenging for me as my teacher is incredibly friendly and open to interviews. The only hard part was getting the photos because I only saw him during class or while he was alone.
Travis Chandler has a unique view on life that led him to become the teacher he is today. He currently teaches at the school that he attended and brings his vast knowledge of movie production, music, and engineering, accumulated over years of exploring life and experiencing whatever he could.Travis believes that we shouldn’t question the meaning of life but should instead realize that not everything has meaning.“Meaning is a human construct. Our brains love narratives and finds them everywhere, even when they are not there” (Chandler, 2015.) However, this has made Mr. Chandler want to explore his passions wherever they take him, constructing his own meaning for life.
To him life’s meaning is to allow us to learn and experience everything that we can so that we can become as knowledgeable as we can. He has shown this through his career with the frequency of job changes and then concluding by working as an educator to share his knowledge with others. He also encourages students to take risks and to go out and do what they believe is best. He is always there for his students, willing to guide them and help them through whatever they need.
I approached Mr. Chandler, who I had been a student of for more than a year, and asked him about transferring schools to GCE and its experiential learning model. Instead of turning me away, like most teachers would do if a student approached them about leaving their school, he spent a whole class period and his lunch break explaining the pros and cons and did not once say what his opinion was. With his questions, he let me come to my own conclusion as he does with every other student who approaches him. This is because he knows that to learn, people need to experience life for themselves.
However passive he is when it comes to advice, he loves to debate and draws all of his opinions from experience. One of the prime examples of this is his class at DePaul, which is “Ethics in Video Games and Cinema.” As an avid gamer himself, he brings a unique view to the class and sets it up in a debate format with an open conversation with his opinion as valuable as everyone else's.Observing his class, however, he is up there, talking and sharing his experiences, causing his students to see the knowledge in their own experiences. He doesn’t teach his students, he guides them.
Our interview took place in his classroom at Francis W. Parker, where I learned everything I know about 3-D printing and design. This picture was taken before we had started our interview and just represented Mr. Chandler through my eyes. He is constantly busy at this desk from 7 AM to 5 PM despite not having classes all day, but no matter what, he is always available to support his students who request his advice or simply to chat. There have been countless times when I came in to talk about issues going on in my life and he was behind his desk ready to listen.
The photo was taken with a low aperture and ISO so that the light from the computer didn’t overwhelm the photo and make it over exposed. However, this caused more shadows and a darker looking photo except around the desk, which helps with the representation of his class because the lights are always off for some reason and it is illuminated by computer screens.
The shutter speed was pretty fast because he was typing and again, the computer screens light. The photo places him on the first third line and a little lower in the photo. The issue with my photo, and all of the photos that I took, is that they represent something to me because I have known Chandler for a long time. I also believe I should have gotten his face more in the photo so that people can identify him and it isn’t such a vague picture. In addition, taking a picture of Chandler during a conversation with a student would have really captured his way of seeing life.
Right after walking in he finished up his email and was ready to be interviewed, without any questions on the topic or scheduling. Our interview was quick because he doesn’t have a defined meaning of life but it was very interesting to hear his story of how he ended up where he did, and from our previous conversations I understood how he viewed life. Life is there to be experienced and shared.
