When she was 10 years old, Eryn Harris and her family visited an aquarium while on a trip to Atlanta. Harris asked to borrow her mother’s camera to photograph the jellyfish. She was immediately fascinated with the camera. That allure continues today as she pursues a digital storytelling degree at Mizzou.
When she came to Mizzou, she planned to follow in her father’s footsteps by pursuing a business marketing degree. While growing up in Florissant, Harris admired her father’s work as a sales manager for Pepsi, Dr Pepper and Snapple.
“I wanted to do what he did,” she said.
Her first semester at MU consisted mostly of math and economics courses, as is usual for a business marketing major. While exploring elective course possibilities to take in the spring semester of her freshman year, Harris came across a digital production class taught by Katina Bitsicas.
“As soon as I saw that, I knew I wanted to try that class out,” Harris said.
She took the class, liked it and then enrolled in the advanced digital production course. Harris soon realized it was time to switch majors. “I found something I love,” she said.
The first project Harris worked on as part of her new major was a piece she titled “This is Me.” In the video, nine women speak candidly about insecurities they have had about their bodies.
“I’m big in promoting the idea of loving yourself,” Harris said. “In order to love yourself, you also have to appreciate your flaws. All of these girls share their stories about how they went through different insecurities.”
In the video, all nine women remain on screen – in nine separate boxes – throughout the video, each taking her turn describing insecurities she has experienced. “I wanted to portray it as the ladies were listening to each other,” Harris said.
“The viewer is able to connect with the honest statements the women make on screen,” Bitsicas said. “Eryn’s use of timing in the work, where a conversation between the women forms on screen, allows a place for the viewer to insert themselves into the work.”
At the end of the piece, the tone shifts as one of the women talks about all of the things she loves about herself. “I am so uniquely and marvelously made in God’s eyes,” the woman says, “and that’s how it’s supposed to be.”
Harris entered “This is Me” into the Rewriting Realities contest, sponsored by the Multicultural Certificate, and won first place in the digital storytelling category.
Another project of Harris’ titled “My Queen” is a narration of a poem. In “My Queen” a woman is shown on screen throughout the piece while a man’s voice is heard reading the poem, which was written by recent Mizzou alumnus Wycla Bratton.
“It’s the opposite of my first piece,” Harris says. “It shines a light on the African-American woman and shows how valued, appreciated and cherished she truly is. It is a man appreciating a woman, not just for her looks but for the way she carries herself and the things that she inspired him to do.”
Harris’ best asset, according to Bitsicas, is the ability to take an idea and translate it into a visual work in multiple media.
“She doesn’t think of her ideas in a cut-and-dry fashion,” Bitsicas said, “but rather is open to exploring multiple facets of her ideas. She isn’t afraid to explore the tough concepts and make the viewer think about the issue in a new way.”
Harris’ stories come from what she finds important to her as a young woman.
“I’m inspired by your everyday hard-working woman, who is often overlooked or torn down by others,” she said. “My goal is to give a new meaning to self-worth, self-love and being a woman.”
