Final Mapping Project in Gallery

Final Mapping Project Reflection

In my second project this year, I took another shot at the self-study prompt, but also utilized elements that corresponded to the mapping prompt.  To communicate the idea of maps and travel, I took photos that all contained an orange suitcase, giving each photo a common element.  In most of the photos, the subject is walking, giving a sense of purposeful movement and travel.  The subject is never facing the camera directly, always looking in a different direction, making it seem like they are walking away from the viewer and into the unknown.  I made sure that all the photos looked uniform by giving them a square crop and playing with the white balance so they all looked warm and sunny, to match the orange hue of the suitcase.  At the beginning of this project, I had planned to use maps that I had lined the inside of the orange suitcase with as part of my project to give the photos a more literal theme of maps.  However, I abandoned this idea because it didn't give me a the leeway in terms of interpretation and composition that I wanted.  I'm glad I did this, because I love the way my project turned out.  This was a meaningful experience for me because I feel like this has been my best project in photography class so far.

Map Project In-Process Reflection

One risk I have taken with this project is that I use myself in most of the pictures.  This was a risk because in my past projects, I have not been successful photographing people.  My best photos are usually the ones without humans in them.  But I think it works for this project, and my photos have turned out very well.  I'm also using this project as kind of a second self-study project, because my earlier self study ended up not quite as I had originally envisioned, and I wanted to give it another shot.
This risk was definitely rewarding because my pictures turned out very well.  They all look good together as a set, but I have to be careful that they are not too redundant.  I'm still debating whether or not I want to print one big square photo to go with my four small photos.  I would like to do this because then I can include more of the photos I took.  However, it requires reprinting and rearranging of the four small photos, which will take a some time to complete.  Either way, I'm sure I'll be satisfied with the result.  I'm excited to display my work.  I look forward to seeing the finished project, paired with the subject of the photos: the suitcase.  At the beginning of this project, I lined the suitcase with maps, thinking I would display the photos inside the suitcase.  I'm not sure where or if that will fit into my project now.  I would like to include it somehow because I put a lot of effort into it, but I don't think it really works with my project.

Self Study Critique response

For this project I ended up with four final photos.  One was of a brick building, two was the stables, three was the arena, and four was the New House stairs.  My critique group agrees that photo number four was not very consistent with the elements in my other three photos.  But I received positive feedback on photos one, two, and three, which is rewarding in itself.  I think if I plan to display this project, I will retake photo four or replace it with something more cohesive to the rest of the series.  For display, I would ideally like to find one long black matte board and arrange the photos in a linear fashion.

Map Project - Initial Plans

I really like the quality and texture of maps and the paper they are printed on.  For my project, I'm planning on finding some way to incorporate physical maps into my photos.  I had an idea that I could take photos and cut them into vertical or horizontal strips.  Then I could substitute some of the strips for pieces of maps so it alternates: photo/map/photo/map.  I also really like the different colors that can be found on maps.  One piece of artwork in particular that really intrigued me depicted the ocean and the artist used pieces of maps in various shades cut out in the shapes to form waves.  I loved this idea!  I want to find a way to do something like this without deviating from my primary element, which is photography.  I probably will not come up with an idea to do this, but until I do I'm happy with the idea of replacing strips of photos with strips of map.  I had another idea of having a big map with photos pinned to certain points.  Each photo illustrates something that happens in that location.

Friday - Self Study Progress Update

Today I worked in the darkroom developing my first few photos for this project.  I'm taking pictures showing how aspects of my life reflect how my parents and ancestors influenced me.  This photo is of me and my horse.  This is significant to me because I am a third-generation horseback rider.

Daily Practice

1.  For the first day, I sketched just to get my brain going.  Then I started building still lifes using random items strewn together, and experimented with studio lighting.
2.  Mainly I practiced shooting in manual mode, but also I focused on lighting my still life so it would look like it was floating.
3.  I would like to do more still lifes, and experiment with such set ups with natural lighting.
4.  It took a while to get the creative juices flowing, but overall I used my time fairly well.

Final Art Reflection

1.  I think my most successful works this year are:
       Stairs; Darkroom print, Kill Your Darlings, Fibonacci
       Bike and Letter in the Sky; Photoshop, House of My Mind
       Let There Be Light; Lamp, Defy Ms. Seal

2.  Stairs:  I like this photo because it is very contrasty and crisp.  The picture cuts off the top of the stairs so you cannot see where the stairs lead to.   Oh, the mystery....
     Bike and Letter:  This photo is a good demonstration of my photoshop capabilities.  I used masking, overlays, and a tablet to add details like footsteps, the giant mailbox, and the silhoutte.  I actually wish I hadn't added the giant mailbox, it's a little disruptive to the rest of the photo.  Otherwise, this photos turned out exactly how I wanted it to.
     Lamp:  The imperfection of the lampshade makes this work charming.  Even though not all the paper came off the transfers and the fabric paint bled through the fabric, I like how the lampshade turned out.  Can't wait to see it all plugged in.

3.  My least successful work was my stop action video.  I should have spent more time developing a comprehensive story, rather than a chain of events.

4. I'm pretty good at using manual settings on a camera.  And I'm pretty competent in Photoshop.

5.  When I set out with a camera and a plan, my photos usually are not the best.  I think if I work less deliberately my photos would turn out better.  I usually try to make the best of the time I am given, but it is difficult to take pictures outside of class when I am not inspired.

6.  I'm excited to try new and different things with the photos I take next year.

7.  Photoshop skills and Aperture knowledge is good for editing photos for photo albums, and making posters or advertisements.  Or for fun.

Defy Ms. Seal Project

For this project, I took pictures of flower very up close.  The flowers i photographed were all from the same bouquet, so the photos look like they have a comprehensive theme.  I then transfered the photos onto some white fabric using gel medium.  Using fabric spray paint, I painted the back of the fabric black, but the paint leached through and messed the pictures up a little.  But Ms. Seal thinks it looks very macabre.  I agree.  I fashioned the fabric into a lampshade for a small table lamp, so when you turn the lamp on, hopefully the photos will glow.

Future Tense

I intended to make the viewer feel as if they were looking out at a scene through a window in a dark room.  This is why I chose to use black paper for my pages.  The title of my book, "What I Saw" is supposed to be ironic; all my photos are photoshop manipulations.  What my title really means is: "what I didn't see".

All my pictures are taken outside and near the coast.  The breezy air gives my photos a sense of movement in the composition and the clear, bright light gives my images a similar color scheme and contrast.  In all my images, I used natural textures as overlays to give the impression that the scene existed in more than one dimension.  For example, in my photo of a girl twirling on a patio overlooking the ocean, I did an overlay of water of the patio so it looks like the water on the horizon continued over the patio and she was dancing on water.

Other students who do this project should be very purposeful in how they construct their pictures.  They should be very deliberate in what elements they include in their images.  If they do this, the project should be very rewarding.

Kill Your Darlings, Fibonacci

1.  It took me a while to figure out how I wanted to construct my photos.  After experimenting a little bit with composition I figured out what I wanted my photos to look like.

2.  I found it really hard to incorporate the Fibonacci ratio in my photos.  When I did use them, I focused too much on constructing the photo are around the ratio that the composition and mood left something to be desired.  I found it so much easier to make a successful photo when I thought more about how I could bring out the subject's geometry through perspective rather than picking up the viewfinder and trying to find something that fits in it.

3.  I tried to communicate the feeling of solitude and sense of isolation or distance.  I like how some of my photos look like they were taken from a hiding spot (stairs, bike, stream photos)or set away form the action (stop sign photo).

4.  One of the darlings I killed was a picture of an orchid with three stems that made a kind of fleur de ;ys shape.  The idea was kind of cool, but the picture itself is out of focus and the dark stairs in the background are distracting.  It turned out to be not a very successful picture.

5.  While my stairs photo fits the group's collection nicely in that it incorporates both the indoors and outdoors and has high contrast, the rough texture and detail of the ferns in the background set it apart from the softness of the other photos.

6.  My peers really like my stairs picture.  I agree with this.  However they didn't like my stop sign picture or my fresh fish banner picture nearly as much as I do. I think those two are some of the strongest photos of me collection.

Stop Action Video

brooke from Ms. Seal's Art History on Vimeo.

1.  Unfortunately, my project doesn't really have a dramatic arc.  There is no climax.  It is a film that follows a person through a series of events, ie waking up, driving a car, buying coffee, etc. but they stay in the same place.  I could have improved the video by making the ending less random.
2.  I specifically chose the song for this stop motion because it's very choppy and rhythmic, so it coordinates with the rapidly changing frames.
3.  The strong points of my project are the music choice, quality of photography, and frame timing.
4.  If I were to make another stop motion, I would think about my plot more carefully before I started shooting.