Part 1: In my first image, I tried to get as close to the subject as possible, while still letting the viewer know what was going on. I just told him to put his hand up and look angry, like he wanted me to go away and stop taking pictures of him, so I got his face, a bit of his upper body, and cut off most of his hand so it was just implied that he was holding his hand up. I wanted the camera close to him to reiterate the privacy and intimacy of what he was doing. I wanted to capture an image of someone doing something intimate, and when I was at my friends house, he was laying on his bed and I got the idea to have him pretend like he was sleeping. I didn't really change anything in the scene, I just took it as I saw it. I wanted people to be able to relate to this picture, because everyone has had someone wake them up and been upset about it, even though sleeping is such a personal thing.
In my second image, I went around with my friend on campus and tried to find different backgrounds. I noticed some flowers and leaves so asked her to go near it. She was actually the one to sit down, and when i looked through the lens, decided that I really liked seeing her from above, so instead of getting down on her level, I just asked her to keep looking up. I also tried to capture her to the side a little, because most times when subjects are right in the center it really bothers me. I was really just trying to capture her in a place that is a big part of her. We used to be in a singing group together, so we took these pictures outside of the music building, where I met her and spent the most time with her. This was more about my social relationship with her than anything else.
In the third image, I was actually going for the same thing I had captured in another image. I went on study abroad and took a picture of my friend where he reached towards the camera, and I really liked the way it looked. So when trying to think of things for my subject to do, I thought about that image, and decided to try to recreate it. I didn't want the viewer to see all of his hands, but for the image to imply that he was grabbing for the lens. For me, this image was about trying to recreate something that I had done before in a completely different place. The other picture I took was outside when the sun was bright, and in Paris right next to Notre Dame. The image I took for this assignment was in my friends basement with the lights on.
In the fourth image, I just told my friend that I wanted to take pictures of him. He got really excited and said he loved to set up scenes. So he set things up in his room, and it was his choice to take off his shirt and pants, but I thought laying the sheet over his boxers was necessary. His room was very dim so I plugged in a couple green lights he had and pointed them towards him. I thought the sunglasses were a good idea because it keeps him more anonymous than if he didn't have them on. I feel like what he's doing in the image could get him in trouble, so anonymity is a good idea. I had more pictures with his entire body in them, but I liked the images closer to his face because without seeing his whole body or the whole room/bed, you see what is going on in that one area, but it makes you curious as to what has happened to make this scene.
Part 2: Others thought my first image was intimate, and liked the size of it. They thought the size agreed with the intimacy. Someone brought up that it looked like a postcard, which was ironic because postcards are meant to be seen by everyone. They liked the colors in it as well, they said it made it look like an old picture. For a series, I might try to capture people in different situations where they might not want to be photographed, and have each of them holding their hand up trying to block the camera.
ReplyDeleteIn my second image, people thought that there was a frog like quality because of the background and vantage point, like my idea had been to make her look as much like a frog as possible in her setting. They liked the color, expression, lighting, and point of view. To make a series, I might take people back to where I met them, or where I spend the most time with them, and capture them somewhere in this place.
In my third image, they thought that it was creepy between the look on his face and his gesture. They thought the yellowish tone worked with his orange shirt, and helped it to look more creepy. They said the noise in it made it look somewhat disfigured, but that added to it. I don't really think this would be good as a series, unless I was trying to keep up with the creepy theme (which hadn't even been my intent).
In my last image, they were all confused as to what was going on, but thought it was somewhat humorous. They thought that the green tint of the whole image was really working. An original comment had been made about his elbow being cropped off, but I tried using a different image with his whole elbow in it and didn't like it as much. The person that made the comment said that printed out, it didn't bother him that it was cropped off.
If I was to make a series with this, I would probably title it "Party Pictures" or something similar, and just take photographs of people after a long night of drinking/partying, see where people end up, what positions they're in, who they're with, etc.
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