Episode: Photography

Possible titles:
Pouting Portraits
Impatient Pam, Look at the Cam!

Problem: At a family function, there is a kid getting impatient with his family's need to capture all of the day's events on film/in photographs.

Possible artists:

Migrant Mother, 1936, Photo by Dorothea Lange (1895 - 1965)

Portrait of Allie Mae Burroughs, 1935 or 1936, Photo by Walker Evans (1903 - 1975)
These photographs symbolize to me the importance of photographic portraiture and how they can assume the role of a mirror to the time period from which they come. Perhaps the Imaginauts can convince the problem character that they are ultimately contributing to the greater portrait of America even if their cheeks hurt from smiling! Both photographers have a variety of portraits of Great Depression America, these two are their most famous.

Possible world:
The PORCHtrait
Imagine one of those big southern manors with the wraparound porch, and a bunch of famous portraits on rocking chairs sipping ice tea in the shade of the afternoon sun. Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring next to the Mona Lisa next to the many personas of Cindy Sherman (1954 - ) next to a Van Gogh self portrait.

Extra content:
I thought we could lead with describing the mechanics of a camera, and make the eye-camera metaphor.

Then we can talk about how film and developed pictures are similar to the brain's memory. I'm imagining an episode where photography becomes a meaningful way to document and record our lives and the lives of those around us, instead of an annoyance.