JOU 428 Audio Slideshow Analysis

“What My Queer Uncle Taught Me About How to Live” tells the story of a queer man navigating through love and life through the late 20th century. The slideshow, hosted by Diego Bragà, features photos of his late uncle Ricardo. In the excerpt about the slideshow, Diego writes, “Without Ricardo…I couldn’t be who I am: a beautiful and unapologetically queer nonbinary Latin artist.”

While Diego had no control of the photography, he used the aspect of zoom to tell a story and highlight his uncle. While talking about who frequented the parties that his uncle would throw at their house, Diego features one photo. He shows the same photo five times, but with each passing phrase, he zooms in on a different section of the photo. Lastly, he shows the entire photo, rounding out this section of the slideshow with, “We’re all partying on this family photo.”

Diego did not take any of the photos included in the audio slideshow. They were all photographs from the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s that were in a box Diego inherited after Ricardo died. Five years after his uncle’s death, Diego opened the box and named it “Geography of Love.”

Diego does an incredible job at matching the photos with the audio. A little over halfway through the slideshow, Diego mentions that in the box of memories he inherited from his uncle were 254 postcards from cities around the world that were exchanged with 160 people over three decades. At that moment, the slideshow shifts from the family photos it was showing before to the postcards, and Diego begins talking about them.

Another comment I would like to add is that Diego references the parties Ricardo used to host multiple times, but he only includes one photo of one party. I think the way Diego talks about his uncle’s is extravagant, but the lack of photos lessens the effect. I assume Diego only used one photo to mask the identities of other people.

Diego doesn’t use any music or ambient sound in his slideshow; it’s just him talking. He makes the story compelling enough that he doesn’t need any other noise to keep the viewer’s attention.