Assignment 4 Artist Statement

Part 1: In all 4 images, I was really trying to show the "kid" in my 24 year old friend. For my first image, I just had him do different things on the playground and knew I was going to Photoshop parts of the images together, so I made sure everything he was doing would be in the shot and from the same perspective. I didn't think about exactly what I wanted until we got to the playground, then used the objects that were on the playground to construct final images in my mind. In the second image, I saw this tube and thought it would be fun to make him look like he was extremely long so you could see his head coming out of one end, and his feet coming out the other. I took 2 images from the same perspective, one with his head coming out the left end, and the other with his feet coming out the right end, then I put them together in Photoshop. In the third image, I took photographs of him on the farther swing as he was in the air, and took more photographs of him on the closer swing while he was closer to the ground so it looked like he was swinging with himself. Then I put 2 separate images together.  In the fourth image, I took 2 separate photographs, one of him on the left side with a sad face, and one of him on the right side with a happy/taunting face. I wanted him to look like he was playing tic tac toe with himself and that he had lost/won against himself. For each of these images, I was thinking about other images that I've seen where someone either used the same model, or used different models in the same situation, and put separate images together to make it look like one complete image that was taken in one sitting. I wanted the images to talk about the inner child in everyone, no matter their actual age.

Part 2: Others thought my images were playful and fun.  They enjoyed my concept and thought for the most part I carried the ideas out pretty well. Some made the comment that the colors in the third image were brighter than the others and that I should choose whether I want the images to be bright or dull. I wanted the images to seem more like old photos of someone when he was a child, so I think I should change the colors on the third image to make them duller and less saturated to match the colors in the other images.  I think these images work well together as a series, but if I was to make an extension of the series, I might try going to different playgrounds or "play places" that children would go, and use different models in different situations. I do like having the same model in one situation though, to make it seem more playful.