The Photo That Got Me into Brown
Desperation and the Creative Process
Around the time I was applying to college in 1980, Time magazine ran a short piece about the college application process (coincidentally, at Brown); in it they described an applicant who had soaked her application in water, then let it dry completely, so it got warped. Admissions officers noted that her application wouldn’t sit neatly in the stacks they had to go through, and so it kept landing on top of their piles, getting more attention, and for a range of reasons, it worked. She was admitted.
I thought about this for awhile. I didn’t want to copy her, but I liked the idea.
Being a high school photographer, I was already planning to send a portfolio of my recent work and a letter of recommendation from a famous artist. But maybe if I wanted to seal the deal, I’d soak my application in water too. Of course, in line with my interests, I thought I should actually soak the application in photo developer. What I decided was that I should get some photo emulsion and smear it on the application, and put a picture on it directly, then the water-soaking part would actually make sense.
But what photo should I adhere?
I re-read the Brown University essay prompt. It ended “… use the space below to give us as complete a picture of you…
