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.