I've been thinking more and more about the whole bedroom thing and I'm thinking this is the direction I want to go in. I got comments on my first meeting blog from Ashley Selbe and Kerry McDonnell and they did get me thinking. Kerry brought up a good point that just taking portraits would probably get a little dull for me and everyone else as well. So I want to add another layer in that I would have people write something about how they feel in their rooms and I would have that framed with the person on their bed. The picture I have of Michael (and another of Malaika that I have not posted) are both so powerful to me. I really like the deadpan aesthetic (which I know I'm not supposed to talk about here, but I will address why I like it further below, it's more than just the aesthetics) and I think it will work perfectly. By doing these portraits, I think that I would get the viewer making their own story out of the image, as well as getting a more pointed direction from the passage written by the sitter. This idea has been floating around with me since I took the pictures of people in their rooms last semester so I'm really thinking this is going to be the avenue I take.
However, Ms. Selbe planted an idea in my head that has been tugging at me since I read her comment. She said that my fairy tale images from Location Photography (some of which can be found here ) were something that I seemed to excel at (at least that's what I gathered from the comment) and that maybe I should continue in that vein. The only thing that's keeping me from that is that the tug isn't as strong as the bedroom portraits. That, and I haven't thought of a good fairy tale that I could adapt. I'm also not feeling heartbroken as much as I was when I made that series, and a lot of that pain of heartache went into that which I think gave the piece a soul of its own. With that said, as much as I would love to do more fairy tales, I don't think that now is the time. I'm not morose enough at this point, although I'm sure come winter....
Mehrdad Naraghi - from the Obscured series
In this image from Naraghi's Obscured series, I like the soft focus/fogginess that creates a desolation of the landscape. It's a very haunting image, which is something I'd like to achieve with my own work. One thing that I believe should have become obvious by now is that I am really affected by feelings more so than opinions in artwork. Although I don't want to work with landscapes so much, this mood here definitely sticks with me. I also like the low contrast of the image, it's so dark an hazy and cool (temperature wise, I mean) and I would love to just take a walk though this plain and breath in the still air.
Poppy de Villeneuve
This is a great example of snapping the shutter at the perfect moment. The everything about this image is perfect to me, the framing, the color palette, and the moment. Above all things, the moment. I feel like a hundred stories could be made up for this woman, sitting solemnly on this motel room counter, deep in thought. She's just so expressive! I think I repeat myself a lot in these descriptions but maybe that was the point of this exercise, so I can really pick out what I like and be able to define it.
Shannon Taggart - Jennifer
Deadpan. Aside from aesthetics, there's a different sort of mood that's set. It's more confrontational. "Here I am. This is me. Deal with it." That's the sort of thing I want in my bedroom portraits -- "Here's my room. Period. Any questions?" Even if a person is at ease it dead pan just gives images a certain attitude that I really enjoy. I also think it would be necessary in the bedroom portraits since it's such a personal topic. I would be coming into people's sanctuaries and photographing them which is pretty invasive, really, so why wouldn't the subject be confrontational toward the invading camera?
No comments:
Post a Comment