Project Update

At this point in my project, I have some good video footage and audio recorded from my second interview with Ann Benjamin. This time around, I decided to focus on creating a profile of a single foster care case on which Ann had working. The case that we talked about was one of guardianship, and it was kept completely anonymous. I am planning on using the audio of Ann speaking as a sort of voice-over narration for my video. Soon, I am hoping to get some good footage at the Milwaukee Children's Court to serve as a setting for a part of the video. I think I am taking the project in a more narrative direction as opposed to simple documentation. It is sort of a combination of the two, with the result being an account of how an actual foster case was conceived and carried out.

Office Law

Here are some of my images from the photo essay. There are also some new ones in color that perhaps give a more realistic representation of their subject. All of the images again reinforce the echelon of foster care's legal system that I am exploring.

A Little Background

Here I have taken an excerpt from my artist's statement for the photo essay. I feel that it gives a beginning sense of my project's direction. It also serves as a sort of introduction to the attorney who is a major part of the profile I am shaping with this project.

"...How I went about ordering the images was simply in the manner that would take a person from outside up into Foley & Lardner. There is a shot of the U.S. Bank building, then the law firm, then interiors of the personal office. The reason for so many images of the office relates back to what I talked with Ann Benjamin about. She usually is not a courtroom attorney; she does a lot of paperwork in the office. Her specialty, patent prosecution, requires a great deal of this kind of work. It was intriguing to learn that her work with Kids Matter was strictly pro bono, as it is companywide. Foley & Lardner has many attorneys, similar to Ann, that go outside of his or her specialty to work free cases for Kids Matter. So far, all of Ann’s Kids Matter cases have been those of guardianship of a child. With my images, I displayed paperwork. My thoughts behind that lie in the fact that many of these guardianship cases don’t end up in trial; they might just be resolved with a long stream of forms and applications. The numerous forms required in a guardianship case are a big part of what Ann does. She showed me just a few of the many pieces of paperwork involved depending on the specifics of the case – it seems like it would be overwhelming at times.
Obviously, with my photo essay I’m attempting to document a person with these images; and it really seems like Ann is consistently busy with all manner of work, with her law firm and with Kids Matter (last year, she had two Kids Matter cases). The majority of my images take place in an office, and that is really to capture the office mentality – always staying on top of many workloads, and a lot of paper. I enjoyed listening to Ann describe how she became involved with Kids Matter; she liked the idea of being able to help people in the community, especially children (many of whom truly need legal aid to better their lives). The two most recent cases that Ann had were guardianship instances in which a grandmother wished to be sole guardian over a child whose parents where unfit to raise him or her. This is the essence of what Ann does with Kids Matter. She also talked to me about how guardianship is not the same as custody, as the parents retain that even if guardianship goes to someone else. The parents are able to appeal the guardianship ruling at any time, though as Ann told me, most don’t. All of this was essentially new information for me; I really didn’t have much previous knowledge of this aspect of foster care. I found all of what Ann had to say fascinating..."