Obituary Project
   For this project, it was very difficult to transfer my vision of the obituary onto an existing idea...especially in regards to the photographs. I wanted to show his childhood, what he "looked" like when he passed away and where he is now. In the obituary, it states that, '"he suffered as a young man, and he did what he had to do to escape it."' His sister further explains that she revealed the siblings experienced physical abuse and a "chaotic childhood" that "forced them to conceal." With this photograph, I find that there is a connectivity between the two siblings. As with vintage photographs, most of the subjects do not smile. Yet taking a closer look, you can sense that there is a lot of pain behind the photograph itself. I thought this was a perfect example of the sister and the obituary's childhood. You can see the thoughts of how they want a different life. Specifically in the boy's face, you can see a sadness and an almost angry emotion. You can also sense a futuristic change that he wants to happen. The boy specifically in this photograph overall has a perfect definition of the obituary's childhood memories. The second photo that I chose was a young man who I thought fit the description within the obituary. The text states that he was a "young man" who was extremely "adventuresome" and "independent." He left his "privileged life" and gave up everything he had all while never contacting any of his family members. Though the thought of abandoning everything you have ever known as well as leaving your family seems like quite the change, he did it for a reason. As some say it's "romantic" or "mental instability," I think that it was necessary for him to experience. If he never left his old life, he would have never inspired so many of people's lives in the present, as "millions of copies were sold" (about the biography) and a major movie was created from his choice to leave everything behind. The obituary says, "he seemed to have found a measure of peace, according to one of his last notes." I think that this photograph resembles his description well and it also shows an ambitious and wealthy young man who wants to go explore the world. I chose these photographs to represent a digital space because both of these spaces can entail or suggest an enormous amount of information about this "mystery man" written in the obituary. For my third photograph that I used, I used Denali as the background for my drawn portrait. In the obituary, it states that he died of starvation. Even though the thought of dying of starvation to anyone is traumatic or horrifying...it was completely his choice. And as I mentioned previously, he wrote with great peace as he was slowly dying. It shows his confidence in death and going to a better place after his death. With these thoughts, I wanted to conform my own drawing of what I think he looks like with the background of Alaska. I wanted to show that he is now apart of that beautiful land and that the land is apart of him. I wanted to show how two different digital spaces can signify a legacy of greatness and that he genuinely did reach that peace that he was looking for for so long. This image could be the definition to people's inspiration about his life story-- and his afterlife story. Photos: OBITUARY “No one is yet certain who he was,” “But his diary and two notes found at the camp tell a wrenching story of his desperate and progressively futile efforts to survive.” The young man in question was ... His identity was not confirmed for weeks, but in time he would become internationally famous as a bold, or very imprudent, figure. |
... died alone in an abandoned bus on the Stampede Trail, a desolate stretch of backcountry near Denali, in August 1992. He was surrounded by his meager provisions: a .22-caliber rifle; some well-worn and annotated paperbacks; a camera and five rolls of exposed film; and the diary, 113 cryptic notes on the back pages of a book that identified edible plants.
Before he died, from starvation aggravated by accidental poisoning, he had survived for more than 110 days on nothing but a 10-pound sack of rice and what he could hunt and forage in the unforgiving taiga. ..., at the time a freelance writer, heard about ...’s story from an editor at ... magazine who had read the ... piece. The editor wanted to write a long article about ... on a tight deadline, and he delivered. But after the story ran, ... needed to learn more. |
“I decided I wanted to write this book because I felt like there was a lot more to tell; there was a lot I hadn’t discovered,” ... said in a telephone interview.
Over the next few years he dug into ...’s life and discovered a complicated, compelling story. He chronicled ...’s travels |
and lonely death. A national best-seller that has since sold millions of copies in the United States. A film based on the book, starring ... as Mr. ... and directed by ..., was released in ....
Mr. ...’s story continues to fascinate, confound and infuriate readers two decades after ...” was first published. Mr. ... said it was by far his best-selling work, adding, “I get more hate |
mail from this book than probably from anything else.”
“He’s this Rorschach test: People read into him what they see,” he said of Mr. ... “Some people see an idiot, and some people see themselves. I’m the latter, for sure.” Mr. ... came from a well-off family on the East Coast. He graduated from Emory University with honors, then disappeared in 1990. He donated virtually all the money in his bank account to Oxfam, a charity dedicated to fighting poverty, then drove west before abandoning his car and burning the cash he had left. He deserted his family and a privileged life without looking back. Mr. ... canoed into Mexico, hitchhiked north and worked odd jobs along the way. He often roamed alone but left an impression on many of the friends he made along the way. An older man named ... even offered to adopt him; Mr. ... gently turned him down. |
He never contacted his parents or his sister. His parents were worried, but knew that long, improvised jaunts were nothing new for their son.
“He was always an adventuresome, pretty self-contained individual. “And it’s important to realize that the trip he didn’t come back from wasn’t his first adventure.” |
Some readers see Mr. ...’s rejection of materialism and his embrace of the natural world as romantic, taking him for a contemporary Thoreau. Many others, especially native Alaskans, have argued that he must have been mentally ill, suicidal or hubristic, and that it was irresponsible for Mr. ... toglorify his story.
In 2014 Mr. ...’s sister published a memoir that depicted a physically abusive, chaotic childhood that both siblings were |
forced to conceal.
“... made his choices, and he accepted accountability,” Ms. ... said in an interview. But she said she does feel her parents should accept some blame. "I do hold them accountable for his disappearance,” she said. “I think for him to leave in that extreme way, to go without telling anyone where he was — I do hold them accountable for his disappearance, but not for his death.” ... said they did not want to comment on the memoir. “He was a tortured soul; he did what he had to do,” said Mr. ..., who wrote the foreword to “...,” adding: “He suffered as a young man, and he did what he had to do to escape it.” By the time Mr. ... died, he seemed to have found a measure of peace, according to one of his last notes, scrawled inside |
a paperback copy of “Education of a Wandering Man,” a memoir by the novelist Louis L’Amour. It said:
“I HAVE HAD A HAPPY LIFE AND THANK THE LORD. GOODBYE AND MAY GOD BLESS YOU ALL.” |
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