Assignment 5 : Created Realities

Social/Cultural Statement : Balance

The concept for this photo is an attempt at visualizing the amount of tasks/people/problems/stuff we must all juggle on a daily basis.

To create this image, I simply took objects that I have around my room and piled them on my head in a haphazard manner. It  truly was a challenge to keep the objects balanced while reaching over to hit the shutter button to start the timer!

I had several versions of this photo to choose from, and I kept going back and forth between this one and one that was not blurred. Obviously, I chose the one with a slight blur. I felt that it added a sense of movement and discomfort for the viewer, and I though it related well to the idea that balancing all of the activities in one's life is not always easy or comfortable.




PART II


One interpretation from the critique was that "it looks like life is weighing you down." I could see that. They also liked the expression on my face and the blur/movement of the books. One jumping off point possibility was that I could try balancing different combinations of items on my head.
 

 

Collages/Installations to be photographed

For this photograph, I wanted to create a kind of sculpture out of everyday items I have sitting around my room. I did my best to use a variety of items that might not normally be found together all in one place. I tried capturing the "sculpture" from several angles to try to get the most interesting composition.

Something that I think I would like to have spent more time on is lighting. I think that the shapes within the sculpture would have done interesting things with the light

PART II

One person noticed that all of my final photos from this assignment involve books--- which I hadn't really noticed before. They especially drew a connection between the photo above and my sculpture photos. I hadn't noticed that!

Someone else suggested that I could continue creating sculptures to be photographed, and to have a certain type of shadow I might want to create in mind (echoing my thoughts on the lighting).

Constructed realities: Works in Progress

#23

1. In what ways do you “construct” your identity? In what ways do you “perform” in your daily life?

How you present yourself to the world-- be it visually or verbally. You construct and maintain your identity daily by how you dress and how you speak and respond in any given situation. It;s almost a kind of branding process. I think that social media provides a good summary of this branding information. For instance, on Facebook you can see what images a person wants to be represented through, what their interests are, how they spend their time and who they spend it with, what they think is funny and how they respond and communicate with other people.

2. Describe some ways in which your personal culture and social environments are “constructed”.


I suppose this connects with a lot of the ideas in the questions above, but there are many outside influences that help to construct how we want to present ourselves. The values we value, the environment we live/grew up in and the people and ideas that we admire are just a few contributing factors.

3. Describe some ways in which your physical environment/space is “constructed”.


A combination of controllable and uncontrollable factors. Personal preferences in decoration. The purpose a space needs to serve. 
Functionality.

4. In your daily life, what would you consider to be “real” and what would you consider to be “constructed/fabricated”?


I think the real aspects would be how everything actually is. As for constructed/fabricated, I think of all the times I might overanalyze or misinterpret a situation.

5. Describe a narrative tableaux that you might create to be captured by a photograph. A narrative tableaux can be defined as “Several human actors play out scenes from everyday life, history, myth or the fantasy of the direction artist” ( Constructed Realities: The Art of Staged Photography Edited by Michael Kohler , 34).

6. Describe an idea for a photograph that includes a miniature stage or still life. A description of such an image is “The tableaux reconstructs events as in the narrative tableaux, but in miniaturized format, using dolls and other toy objects” (Kohler, 34).


I think that it would be interesting to recreate a famous movie scene this way. You could do all sorts of scenes this way, depending on what materials you are using. I think it would work well as a series.

David Haxton

Haxton was born in 1943 and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana. He primarily works with raw materials, (mostly cut paper) to create a kind of sculpture. He then pays close attention to the backdrops and lighting. As he describes his process: 


“A large format camera is placed in a dark studio. Photographic backdrop paper is arranged and cut, lights are placed in the space and the film is exposed...The slashes and cuts in paper are a record of a performance for the camera.”


David Haxton currently resides in Winter Park, Florida where he works as a professor of photography at the University of Florida.


http://www.davidhaxton.com/

'The Morning After "He greatly daring dined"'

This photograph (taken in 1845) by Robert Adamson and david Octavius Hill laughs at Hill's experiences with hangovers, and serves as a general statement about excess alcohol consumption. Hill is seated at the left, and his hand is being held by surgeon and anatomist James Miller, all the while the Roman bust looks away in disgust.

It has apparently been documented that Hill definitely did enjoy his drinks.

#21

A. Series: Brainstorm various ways to make a “series” of photographic images.

Focusing on different aspects of one location

same subject, different locations

focusing on a single person or group of people and their environment

Coming up with different ways of portraying a single theme

B. Final Project: Your final project in this class will be designed by you. If you could tackle any photography project, what would it be? You could combine other media with photography (video, sculpture, drawing) or you could take one of your earlier assignments and expand it to create a larger project. If you are expanding an earlier project or creating an entirely new series of images, shoot for a series of at least 5 images. Describe an idea you have for your final project.

I like the idea of discovering and exploring a place. I think that what I am leaning toward doing. It would need to be someplace on or near campus, but I'm not sure if I want to document a favorite place I'm very familiar with or someplace brand new. 

Assignment 4(0) Recreate Popular Media

Tanning. People will go to many lengths to have that golden glow. It is one standard by which society and media gauge beauty and health.

I've never been a fan of this fad. Not only have I witnessed my grandpa have potentially cancerous sun spots burned off of the top of his head with liquid nitrogen, but frankly my skin has never been able to handle all that much sun exposure anyway. I'm not especially allergic or albino, but I've just got the skin that comes with naturally blonde-haired, blue-eyed persons. Therefore, you won't ever find me at the beach looking much like the woman shown in the ad above (for more than one reason). I generally look something like the photos below it, though I have slightly exaggerated my appearance. I take a lot of care to prevent sunburn, meaning hats, sunglasses and several applications of a relatively high SPF sunscreen. It sounds pretty lame, but I don't care. Hey, at one time it was cool to be pale.