Assignment 6 Written Statement

For my final project, I took portraits of people and then asked what they wanted that they did not have, or wanted to do that they could not do. One person said he wanted a car, he wanted money, and he wanted to have kids. Another person said he wanted a motorcycle, he wanted to be in love, and he wanted to be a teacher. I said I wanted to play guitar, I wanted to get married, and I wanted to be pretty without makeup.  After I took the portraits, I had each person write down these desires, and scanned them into the computer, then added them on top of the persons mouth.  I feel like sometimes people don't say what they really want, either because they aren't asked, they are embarrassed, etc. so I decided to put it on their mouth like it was something they wouldn't say.  Then I took pictures of each person "acting out" their desire.  I wanted the photograph to be more about the desire than the person, so I tried different ways of doing that (like blurring them in the background and having the object of desire in focus). I also chose to make them black and white, mostly because the original photographs that gave me the idea were in black and white, but also because I wanted it to be something "historical".  Like each person could look back years from now and see what they used to want, if they still want it, if they already have it, etc.  I found the photographs of myself the hardest to take, obviously because I couldn't do as much with depth of field and see exactly what was in the camera's vision.  I think these photographs as well as the original photographs I saw, are personal. They give insight into someone that you wouldn't see just by looking at them. I think it's important to look at the inside of someone rather than what's on the outside.