I chose to recreate an image that one of my friends had posted onto facebook. The comments were really what made this picture so memorable. This original photo was an image that was documenting forever this public humiliation that this person went through after getting too drunk, and promoting this humiliation in an even more public area (facebook).

My recreation image was attempting to take this idea of publicizing humiliation, but tried to show that this person passed out alone doing homework. Many images like the original are both humiliating to the subject but also seem to make the subject more notorious, but an image where someone is passed out from staying home alone and studying would not have this same "cool" feel, and wouldn't be posted to facebook.

Image #1 Onlooker

In this photo I wanted the place and landscape to be the focus of the photograph, which is why the landscape overpowers the individuals in the image. I included a lot of the sky in the frame to add balance to the image. I wanted the image to show change, so I made the image slightly blurred.

This image is about reminiscing about the past. The horse-drawn carriage is an old-fashioned object, and the lone boy standing looking out on it seems sad and forlorn. The blur also gives the photograph a more old-fashioned feel.

I did not plan this image, I wanted to take a photograph of the landscape, and the carriages and people kept getting in the way. After a while I decided that I needed to work with these objects in the photograph. I manipulated the image to get rid of another child who was sort of near the little boy, because I liked how creepy the boy is standing and wanted him to be the only standing person in the photo.

I did not have a specific motivation for this image, but just that I wanted to show this landscape.

I really liked the photographer that we watched the video about (I cannot remember his name anymore) but he photographed people who were tiny in the landscape, I think that this image is similar to his work, however it is a much smaller image and it is natural.

Image #2 Duality of Surburbia

I wanted to have an image that contained a lot of symmetry, in order to achieve this the subject of the photograph (the identical mailboxes) are framed in the exact middle. Also, because of the symmetry I made the image have a lot of contrast in order to ensure the image was still dynamic.

My intention for this image was to be commenting on the lack of individuality within “surburbia”. I created an image that has repetition of architecture and landscaping to show how everything looks the same, but also mean for that concept to be taken further to illustrate how even people, world views, and culture in surburbia are often identical from house to house.

When creating this image, I knew that I wanted to photograph a suburban neighborhood, but as I photographed that place I came across these mailboxes. At first I was interested in only the identical nature of the mailboxes, but then wanted to have the yards behind the mailboxes be identical. I had to edit the picture to make the yards identical. This was my first attempt at seriously digitally manipulating a photo.

My intention for showing this image was really to show how creepy these suburban neighborhoods really are, the lack of personality in houses and yards.

The neighborhood reminds me of the book A Wrinkle In Time. There is one place in that book where all the houses look identical, and all of the people in the neighborhood do the same things at once. It is because the people in this community are all controlled by one brain. When I was photographing this place, the book was kind of my inspiration and I wanted the photo to convey the same feeling and ideas that the book conveyed.

Image #3 Preservation Area

For this image I wanted to include the sign as the subject of the photo, so I photographed the sign from a lower perspective to make it look larger. I also included the creepy neighborhood (previously mentioned) in the frame, to make the image seem ridiculous.

I wanted the image to show how ridiculous suburban areas are and to have the sign seem like it is saying the “preservation area” is the neighborhood. Perhaps saying it must be preserved in its perfection.

It took a while for me to get this image right, I knew I wanted to get the creepy neighborhood in the background, so I had to experiment with perspective.

Showing how ridiculous both the sign and the neighborhood was what motivated me to capture this image.

Image #4 Structure

I really enjoyed the form of the stairs in the building, so I wanted this form to be the main subject. To do this I left most of the other surrounding objects out of the frame.

This object is really just about the beauty of man-made a structure. The almost complete lack of organic objects helps to reinforce this idea.

I had previously sketched, dreamed, and analyzed carefully how I could take this image. I have been in love with the pattern of the stairs for a long time.

My motivation was purely to show the patterns that I thought were so cool looking in an image.

This image relates to another one of the photographers we watched in a video, the one that blurs architecture to show just forms. Though this image is not blurred the focus is on the patterns and forms within the building instead of the actual building.

Research about Place Photographer

http://www.whitecube.com/artists/taylorwood/

This image called Self Portrait Suspended seems to be about the confusion of space and how it relates to a person's identity.

According to White Cube (where I found part of this series) Sam Taylor-Wood's work "examines the split between being and appearance" and places subjects "where the line between interior and external sense of self is in conflict". I think this image in particular is about how someone feels on the inside (suspended and waiting, or weightless and relaxed, or even just something different and unexpected), and how this "inner person" can really be a problem if it becomes apparent in the real world.

The place in this series of suspended self portraits seems quite important, because it adds a sense of inconceivability to the image. If the subject was in another place, like outside a large sky scraper or on the moon or even cliff diving the subject's pose would be much more understandable. However this white room, this space, though not directly the subject becomes an integral part of the meaning of the image. How would the subject be falling or suspended like she is in the image in this space? So I think it is really an effective depiction of space, because it adds so much to the overall meaning of the image.

Image #1: Triplets

The reviewers thought that this image appeared to be taking away my identity and that it also shows there can be more than one side to a person. This is similar to my original intent, although I did not want to imply to be taking away my identity, but I can see where this idea may come from.

In order to improve my image I should lighten the background more, and also crop closer to the head, so the subject is more centered.

If I was to expand this project, I could take more portraits of people in typical portrait fashion, but block out their face with something that they enjoy doing so much that they may feel it becomes part of their personality.

Image 2: Boredom

The people from class thought that this image was a person who was confused, and was trying to "explore a camera". This is sort of the meaning of this piece, although it was more about boredom than confusion.

Some individuals thought that I should crop the image so that he sat in the middle, although others thought that this position of the subject was a design element that worked well. People also mentioned that his face was very effective.

If I were to expand this into a larger project, I could use a subject as if he is "exploring the camera" by entering the frame in strange ways.

Image 3: Art?

People thought that this image was about waiting, the subject was trying to occupy himself, and that he was not aware of the camera and the photographer was just people watching. It was an image that caught someone at a meaningless moment of their day. This was not at all what I had in mind. Their ideas might have stemmed from the fact that I did not pose the model at all, perhaps if I had posed him in an obviously thoughtful pose, it might be more clear that the photograph was describing something particular about the subject's personality and interest.

The low perspective was working well, however one reviewer said I could maybe push it further by going lower. The contrast between dark and light was good, and there were interesting lines that led to the subject.

If I were to expand this project, I could people watch between classes and take pictures of people who really are just waiting around for the next thing to happen.

Image 4: What?

The only thing that the reviewers thought was that it looked like he couldn't see, and this idea was exaggerated by the fact that in previous images of the subject he had glasses on, and he was not wearing them in this image. In a sense that is what I was going for, I was trying to show someone looking puzzled and uncomfortable.

The expression is working well in this image, as well as the cropping. However I could have played more with the position of the face. For example, the face being upside down, or turned to one side. Also, it should have been sharpened more, and I lost some of the mid-tones during editing or printing.

This image could be made into a larger project that is similar to the one from Image 2, something about exploring a camera.

Image 1: Triplets

For this image I wanted a self-portrait that was more interesting than just a centered shot of my face. I wanted to have the middle image of me centered in the frame, but didn't want to include all of the other additional figures. The repetition of the same figure makes the image very balanced, but the asymmetrical cropping of the two outside figures prevents the image from being too balanced.

The image is about how I see myself. The image was taken of my reflection in the mirror, because on a day-to-day basis I can only view myself through the mirror. The camera blocks my face because I don't really often think about how my face looks. I'm more concerned with things I can change, like my clothes or my hair. Finally, there are multiple images of me because I feel like there are multiple personalities within me (who I am with my friends, who I am in class, who I am at work), and while most people only see my one personality, I can look at myself and see all of these different aspects.

For this photo I brainstormed ideas that I could do for taking a self-portrait. I knew I wanted to do it in the mirror, specifically my bathroom mirror because it has the ability to open in interesting ways. I played around with the mirror's ability to reflect, and how to frame the image.

Image 2: What?

For this image, I wanted to fill the whole frame as much as possible. In order to prevent the image from being boring, I chose to leave certain areas of the subject's face out of the frame. I also was experimenting while shooting the subject, with the type of distortion that occurs when the camera is very close to the subject. This one has some distortion of the subject's face.

The image is about being puzzled and put-off. The subject was uncomfortable because the camera was so close to his face, so this definitely shows in expression. Also, the cropping of his face and the distortion adds to the puzzling effect of the picture.

I did not do much planning for this image. I knew that I wanted the subject's face to fill most of the frame. I also told the subject to "look interesting", and this is what he came up with.

The real goal for creating this image was to create an image that experimented with distortion of the face, and that filled the frame.

Image 3: Art

For this image I took a picture from a lower perspective. I increased the contrast, because there are distinct separations between the white walls and the dark ground, and even within the figure with his dark jeans and white shirt. I wanted to emphasize the figure, so I tried to capture lines that were pointing towards the figure.

This image is about the subject, and his personality. I know him very well, and one of his favorite things to do is look at and discuss art. At museums he takes a really long time looking at one piece of art, and contemplates its meaning and importance. I wanted to create an image that showed his serious contemplation of art.

I did sketch this idea out beforehand, I knew what I wanted the subject to do, so I drew it out before hand to get an idea of what it would look like. I did not direct the subject much, I told him only to look at the painting. I experimented with using different perspectives that I hadn't tried before, mostly ones from below.

Image 4: Boredom

I framed the subject in an uninteresting position, with his head being at the center of the frame with no background. The lighting was also supposed to be pretty generic.

This image is about boredom, so this is why I included such little interesting detail and framing. Both the subject and I were bored of photography by this point, and we wanted to be done. I wanted to create an image that encompassed this boredom.

I did not actually plan this image at all. I was fiddling around with zoom, because that was the prompt and I accidentally took a photo in this way (mostly just the subject's head and a blank wall). I then really liked it, and tried to recreate it. I did not tell the subject to do anything, and would take pictures when he was not prepared, so that he did not look posed.

This image reminds me of Lise Sarfati's images. Her subjects look incredibly bored or like they are waiting for something. However, her images tend to have interesting backgrounds or are made up or posed. My image is really truly an image of my subject waiting for the experience of having his picture taken over and over to be over. I did not edit the subject's face to make him look more idealized, which I think is something pretty different than most images these days. I wanted the image to look real.