Documentary Photography Class

This semester I'm taking a Documentary Photo class. Unlike the photography classes I've taken before, this one has a catch. We have to work on ONE project that has to withstand the entire semester. Now, this is something that has the potential to be extremely awesome, or extremely horrible. Hopefully it won't be the latter of the two. Here's the e-mail I wrote to my professor. Let me know what you think, please?

"This is super late, I know. But I have finally come up with what I may want to do for this class. The reason it has taken me so long to talk to you about it is because of uncertainty; this is one idea that has stuck with me the longest but I didn't think it could withstand the longevity of the semester, so I've entertained other thoughts ideas. This is it though.

This past summer I think I've found my niche and exactly what I want to do in the field of photography, and that is music. Towards the end of last semester, I found myself shooting local show after local show, and even used my images for my final project. After the school year ended, I shot three huge concerts in Atlanta and it was the most satisfying experience I've had with a camera. It seems as if shooting music, in general, fulfills me more than shooting in any other realm of photography (portraits, weddings, fashion, sports, etc).

So here it is, I have figured since this is the one thing I know I'm good at and the one thing I love, why not keep doing it for not only myself but for this class.
So far I've had about 4 ideas, but I would like to narrow it down to two perspectives, and tell two different stories. I would like to tell two stories from two different perspectives.

1.)The Artist's side- There's one artist and one band that I would like to follow, and I know they're more than willing to allow me to do so. These are local artists and I frequent their shows. The great thing about them is that I know them personally, and I know how they are when they aren't doing music. You can still tell that even when they aren't holding a guitar, or drumsticks, that they eat, sleep, and breathe music. With the one artist, I've been helping her out a lot behind the scenes in terms of her trying to get herself out there in order to perform more frequently, at more venues, and to begin to expose herself, music wise of course. It's the small things that matter the most, and these are the things that we have been working on. I don't think I want to reveal them in this message; I'd like my photos to do that. With the band, I would like to do almost the same thing. They just recently signed with and Indie label and they're extremely amped up about it. I haven't worked with them directly yet, but that can definitely change. They're well known in Carrollton, and in the metro-Atlanta area. They've traveled a lot around the state and have even been outside the state a few times. THIS is something that I would like to document. I guess you can say I want to capture "the good/the bad/ the ugly." I want to get shots of them practicing, traveling, performing; I want to know what drives them, what's they're motivation, why they do what they do, etc.

2.)The "fan's" side- I believe that this will be done on a much broader scale because there are a variety of fans out there, and there will be an abundance of people to talk to and take photos of. Again, narrowing it down to two within this portion of the project , I would like take a shot at "local fans" vs. the fans that attend the huge shows, the sold out concerts, the fans who finally get to see the one person that they've always wanted to see perform live. Several questions I would like to answer are questions include:

What does music mean to you?
How important/why is music important to you?
What does it do for you?

I would like to interview these people to get direct answers, and also attempt to catch them candidly while the show is going on- I believe these portraits will answer those questions because of the raw emotion. Right now this part seems a little on the surface but I'll be able to dig a lot deeper as the semester goes on because more questions, situations, and topics will begin to arise.

I think I'm more than capable of making this series last not just the entire semester, but I see it going further than that. I feel that strongly about it. What I look to gain from this project is better understanding of how music works, for lack of better words. I want to know what it’s like to be a musician. I want to know how other people view music and musicians. Of course, this project isn’t something only I would like to gain something from, but I would love for people who view these photos to gain the exact same thing, if not more."