My final images are placed in a set, titled “Texting Butterflies”, which is extended upon my first set, “Butterflies in Our Society”. Extending upon the topic of bullying and rumors with the abstract concept of the butterfly effect, I wanted this final presentation to be more focused and narrowed down on cyberbullying as my intent. Exploring this social issue in a creative way, I alluded the individuals who made small comments online as “butterflies” where something small, similar to one small comment, can result in a huge impact and potentially affect one’s self esteem, mental health, and wellbeing. Thus, I titled the set “Texting Butterflies” to allude to all the text messages and comments online, scattered around the global web and social media that can create irreversible harm to the victims of cyberbullying. Building up on the first set, where I focused on emphasizing emotions through the subject’s pose and facial expressions as well as the atmosphere through lighting and colors, I brought back these techniques that worked really well onto the final set as well, and kept in notice the overall story telling aspect as well. I believe that this final set incorporated both elements of Guo’s and Kristine’s photographs, while Kristine often captivates emotions through the posture and expressions of the subject, I really liked Guo’s aesthetic style and his creative elements such as vivid colors and angles to allude to different emotions and ideals. Due to this, I tried to embed these elements into my final presentation as well to create powerful visual impacts through the various techniques mentioned. Just like the first set, the repetition of butterflies were seen in all three images as a symbol for the individuals who makes a comment online, directly hinting at the intended message and the supporting element also supports the subject’s facial features, making the overall set more visually pleasing and creative. Extending upon previous sets, this set conveys a more emotional story that can almost be interpreted as a journey and process of undergoing cyberbullying. Looking at the set from left to right, the first image shows the exposure to hate comments and the power of verbal abuse. As all the hateful comments enter the subject’s eyes, it draws her energy away and makes her more fragile and hurt, portrayed with a dystopian and lost atmosphere. In the center image, the phone was clearly displayed to show her attachment and intensive focus on other’s portrayal of her. Through this, I hope the audience can relate to themselves and realize that when we face defamation and rumors, although we tell ourselves to not pay attention, however, we are automatically drawn to other’s perceptions of us and will take those comments very seriously anyways. Thus, in this image, I tried to capture her franticness and fragile state. At the same time, pieces of hurtful comments were taped onto her face starting in this image, which builds upon the first image, suggesting that as the cyberbullying cycle worsens, more “titles” are getting imposed onto her. In the image to the right (last image), I moderated the image from the first set, which can better demonstrate her pose and reveal more facial details. In the last image, it underlines the last stage of the cyberbullying cycle, where the victim is defeated and broken. Facing all these opposing voices with no one to support her, instead of standing up for herself, which is useless against all these ignorant bullies, she gives in and apologizes for nothing. With this, I want the audience to realize the severity, seriousness, and critical situation behind bullying, where small comments made unconsciously or for fun may hurt an individual to an unimaginable state. In all these images, the background is used to support the mood and atmosphere of the image, which was kept very simple to prevent distractions, allowing the audience to directly focus on the pose and expressions of the subject. I want the audience to get drawn to the subject’s facial and body expressions, slowly unveiling the different props and elements within each photo, allowing for depth and various interpretations. While the elements and props strengthen the image, making the content more evident, pieces of hateful comments were also blurred and portrayed in the background of the last image, supporting the creation of a pressuring atmosphere seen in online cyberbullying situations. Elements such as paper pieces with hurtful comments, butterflies, and phone, all combine to support the overall message of the cyberbullying cycle. Additionally, the complementary colors of red and blue creates enticing color contrasts, while the soft lighting of blue in these images emphasize on the sad and depressing atmosphere, the red in the second image suggests the danger and power behind cyberbullying and it’s effect on one’s mental and physical health. Furthermore, the sad facial expressions and the gesture of avoiding eye contact all express the subject’s fragile, sad, scared, and hurt emotions. With poses from hugging knees and crouching on the ground, to looking up and staring down all suggests insecurity. Through these elements and aesthetic visual portrayals, I hope that the audience will be able to feel different emotional impacts with each picture, connecting with the subject and feeling angry for the situation, while feeling grievous and sad for the subject, and feeling connection with the social issue themselves. Whether they are a victim of cyberbullying, or a “butterfly” that has gone through similar situations, I hope that bringing awareness to this issue can help more individuals in the future and allow the audience to think before acting, because each action leaves an online footprint, and the trace can never be erased.
For my second identity set, I‘m inspired by the photographer Lisa Kristine, changing a bit from the first set. In Lisa Kristine’s photographs, she focuses on taking photos of social causes and creates powerful visual symbols. I was inspired by Kristine’s style because of the powerful messages that she expresses behind her photographs. Instead of portraying an emphasis on lighting and color in this set, I wanted to create direct vision impacts through the sharp focus of the eye and the posture and emotions shared by the subject. In her photos, she perfectly captivates the emotions of the subjects face and uses the background/environment for support to reveal stories. Thus, it was highly relative to the ideas I wanted to develop through my photos. The title of this project is “Scars” and I want to explore the social issue of abuse. This is an extremely heavy topic that can make extreme visual impacts and share powerful stories. I wanted to raise awareness to this social topic because although we are all lucky to have a loving family and people who cares about us, others in this world may not be as lucky. While we should be appreciative for our own lifestyles, I believe that we should also raise awareness for more people to realize these tragic events to happen to other individuals in the world, and hopefully make an impact. Byrevealing the bare, saddening scars behind the abusive behaviors, I want my audience to feel strong emotional impacts that makes people feel sad and angry towards this issue, while feeling a sense of bravery from the subject. Abuse should not be tolerated in any country in the world, and should not be hidden and masked out of fear. Everyone should be able to stand up for themselves and their rights, thus, I want to explore the storytelling aspect through portraiture to raise awareness to this issue.
I have taken these photos in the style of Lisa Kristine, who focuses on documenting stories and revealing impactful social issues/causes through her portrait photographies. While Kristine often focuses on cultural dynamics and different indigenous cultures as subjects for her photographs, I was inspired by her ability to capture the subject’s story through the props that they hold and the emotions they implied. In the blue and green photos that I selected, I experimented with different facial expressions and poses to try to express different visual messages. For example, in some of the images, the subject is looking downward, which often alludes to unconfident and self-depressive personalities, implying the tragedy behind abuse. Other times, I made the subject look up with a sharp focus on the eye, hoping to show the fierce, brave, and strong side of the subject, presenting her persistent attitude, standing up for everyone else in the world as well. I believe that my blue and green photos effectively expressed different sides and stories related to abuse and different props were used in the images as well. In some cases, makeup was shown to imply the attempts to cover the “scars” resulted from abuse, and postures such as “curling up” and “crouching shoulders” suggested insecurity and the fragile state of the subject, creating significant visual impacts that allows the audience to sympathize with the story presented. At the same time, I also used different lighting colors to build up atmospheres, where colors such as purple and red underlined devastation and darkness in the photo, connecting to the emotions of the subject. Other times, I kept the background as simple as possible, just like some of Kristine’s photographs, where the sharpened main focus brings out the subject herself, without background distractions. Keeping the background black, the contrast between the background and foreground worked well to show the subject’s facial expressions and state of mind, thus creating a stronger visual impact that portrays the social issue of abuse, seen through the posture, bruises, and actions of the subject.
Red photos
The chosen series of red photos is titled “scares” and addresses the story/social issue of “abuse”. Although the visual presentation on the blog may make it difficult to draw obvious connections between these images, however, I intended to create a sequence that connects an overall story. In the first image, the subject shows and insecure and weak state of mind, putting makeup on her face to cover up the bruises; the second image shows her evident opposition towards the social issue of abuse, protesting to the audience about this issue; the last image shows her process of transformation, from attempting to hide herself to daring to show her most vulnerable state, directly facing her fears and stories, which ultimately embodies her courageous and defiant character. I believe that because the topic is so bold, the sharp focus on the subject without any exterior distractions created a stronger message, and the use of props, makeup, and facial expression were strengths that I visualized with these photographs. In this photograph, I feel like I developed as a photographer to really dive deep into the message that I want to express, and instead of focusing on many different things in the image, I tried to specify on a few to bring the images together. Using framing alongside of colors, various moods and atmospheres were suggested. In the first image, I composed the image horizontally to reveal both the subject and her reflection in the mirror. I really liked the prop usage in this set, where I was able to use props effectively to connect to the content within. The beauty blender and the concealer alludes to the attempts to put on “coverage” and to conceal the bruises and hurt that lays underneath a person that we see everyday. While the issue of abuse should never be tolerated, this action of concealing the brutal actions only triggers the occurrence of the issue, and this creates a strong visual impact alluding to the story behind a subject who experiences abuse. Additionally, the purple used in the image softens the contrast between the walls and subject. Since the photo was taken inside a house, the different colors of the furniture and the various colors may present distractions, thus, by using a purple lighting, not only does it portray a pressuring and low atmosphere, but it also unifies the many colors within the house, drawing the focus to the subject itself. An important aspect that was focused on within all three photographs was facial expressions and poses. From the lost and empty glances to the definite stares, the subject creates different emotional impacts such as a hurt and frightened figure, a saddened soul, a figure that shows signs of acceptance, and a figure that is trying to raise awareness and protest against her experiences. Also, signs of frustration was hinted through the grasping of her head on the second picture, and the tear trickling down her face in the third, all these small actions ultimately make the images stronger. I attempted to communicate these powerful messages and the transformation of character through body language and facial expressions, with sharp focuses on the eyes. Different audience members might interpret this piece differently, although it’s a sensitive topic that some may feel caught off by, however, this may serve as a guide, a warning, or a sign of strength for people. Nonetheless, improvements can still be made and something that I wish to further develop and explore in future sets is the use of symbolic items. After exploring with props in this set, I believe that I can continue to improve on showing deeper messages with the symbolism behind props and backgrounds, which can help build unique and strong content within a photograph. For example, a magnifier often represents the zooming in of details, yet they also symbolize intellect and knowledge, so the combination is usually shown in photographs with detectives to imply their ability to uncover mysteries.
Favorite image critique:
This is my favorite photo of this set because I believe that it demonstrates a clear message that’s complemented by the composition of the photo and the subject’s face. In this image, the photo was shot was a medium closeup shot, which takes away all the distractions from the clothing or style of the character. Additionally, this also helps emphasize on the subject itself without any exterior influences. With the subject tilting a bit towards the right, the lighting works well with the highlights and shadows within the photo, making the image more dimensional and dynamical. With the black background, it extracts all reflections and shadows casted by the subject unlike a typical backdrop, which eliminates distracting elements by keeping the background simple. The background also brings out the subject in the foreground, where the use of negative space draws the audience’s eyes to the subject as the main focus, showing an effective use of depth of field. The image was not overexposed and the ISO was lowered to create a darker mood, connecting to the heavy topic instead of having bright lighting that typically creates a lighter and happier atmosphere. I believe that the composition of the photo was very balanced, whereas the subject’s facial expressions and pose really stood out, while emphasizing on the sign that she carried as well. Adding on to this, the white balance was adjusted to a higher scale, and a soft red lighting was actually casted in the room to create a warmer tone in this photograph. Corresponding to the red words on the sign and the bruises and scars on the face, the red lighting complemented the overall atmosphere and intent (story) behind the image, where red often creates strong visual impacts and alludes to danger, courage, and anger, which are all emotions that are connected to this social issue. I believe that the story of standing up for oneself and showing awareness to “abuse” was highlighted. Although the sign clearly represents the massage, however, that was my intent, because this bold message represents the severity and importance of communicating this issue, which should be highly emphasized in the image. Makeup was supported in this photoshoot to shape the character’s story and develop the content within the image, which reveals the “abuse” that she experienced. Alongside her grasping of her hair and the defiant stare, it captures the frustration and anger of the subject, and allows the audience to respond to those emotions as well. Through the sign and the subject herself, the audience will be able to get the definite message of “abuse should not be tolerated”, thus raising awareness to the issue. At the same time, the audience will also feel different emotions and the burden of the depressing atmosphere, further connecting with the issue to express various types of pain, anger, sadness, frustration, etc.
Portrait photography is a type of photography that captures the different forms, attitude, personality, and identity of a person to reveal a story. By utilizing different lighting, posing, settings, not only does portrait photography emphasize on the subject, but through structures and compositions, a “good portrait” reveals a person’s character or brings out the focus of a content. On top of this, subject’s expressions, emotions, and characteristics can all help set certain tones and guide audiences to deeper interpretations. In portraiture, through the different processing stages of a photograph, it can place emphasize on abstract elements, environments, human nature, and other expressive stories behind one image. At the same time, the different compositions and details of a portrait may zoom-in or zoom-out accordingly to emphasize on different characteristics. I feel like a selfie is definitely a self-portrait, however, there needs to be certain elements and it needs to be able to reveal something about the subject in order to count as a “portraiture”. Connecting to this, I think that more abstract representations can also cease to become portraits by using other formal elements to reflect upon the intended subject. For example, a blurred figure or an edited picture can tell a story about the subject and representations can alter and change with abstract elements.
In Gordon Magnin’s artworks, he incorporates abstract elements with the use of geometry, pattern, form, repetition, and more in order to challenge the intended objectives and interpretations of consumer based images. Through these abstract portraitures, the nuance style allows Magnin creates depth in his work and expresses emotions with the use of shapes.
There are really no limits or boundaries in portraiture, as the photographer can choose to simply capture a beautiful image or show more complex content within it. With portrait photography, there’s always the need for creativity and breaking the standards can often result in fascinating results and styles.
Gordon Magnin
Commonly seen in Steve McCurry’s photographs, the vivid use of color makes the images more enticing and allows the subjects to pop up. At the same time, his photographs is also a form of storytelling – often documenting conflicts, ancient traditions, and contemporary cultures. In his most famous photograph “The Afghan Girl”, the vivid contrasting green and red made the girl really pop out. Also, through the torn holes in the clothes and the girl’s expressions, the snapshot of the photograph heavily portrayed the impacts of war and conflict. Thus, it can be seen that there is a lot of power within a good portrait and it can allow the audience to get a sense of the story behind the image as well.
The Afghan Girl Steven McCurry
In Jake Wangner’s works, he often manipulates lighting and editing in order to highlight certain subject and story while setting stunning atmospheres and moods. With his camera, Wangner creates analogue portraits by playing with color, timing, and double exposure to create powerful and dynamic images. As he paints faces that illustrates different emotions, his work shows a lot of expressive emotions and creates enticing effects that brings forth his style.
Jake Wangner
Vision – Mind Map
https://isbeijing.padlet.org/ivy_yang/qa4qnaedogikbrfs (more extensive mind map)
For my project, I want to focus on the societal issue of rumors and bullying through the abstract concept of the butterfly effect.
The title of this project is “Butterflies in Our Society” and the societal issue I want to explore with my photographs is rumors and bullying through the abstract concept of the butterfly affect. In the butterfly effect, something small can eventually result in a huge impact, so I wanted to use this to express how one small comment can potentially heavily impact an individuals wellbeing. In the formation of a bullying or cyberbullying cycle, each small comment builds up on top of each other, in the end hurting the individual severely. Just like the flutter of a butterfly’s wings, although it seems like something small, but it can “ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world” (Chaos Theory). Feeling influenced by our environments, we often get brainwashed without knowing it, often contributing to the problem by being one of many “butterflies”, yet, no one is innocent in these type of cycles. So, I want to bring notice to this topic and develop a sense of wariness, allowing the audience to feel touched and conscious of this social issue after looking at the photographs. I want to look at photographers who really focus on emphasizing emotions and the use of colors. A photographer that I might focus on is Charles Guo. In his images, he really focuses on using lighting and shadow to create atmospheres and develop on emotions at the same time. He also commonly embed multimedia elements and backgrounds in order to present different affects. I will also look into images that uses objects as symbols to develop a story behind the photograph. For this project, I want to incorporate blue butterflies into the set as the color blue can be defined and interpreted differently while the butterfly emphasizes on the butterfly effect. At the same time, I will also look into additional elements that alludes to bullying, for example, displaying comments and words as an element in my photographs.
Artist: Charles Guo
Charles Guo
Being one of China’s top fashion photographers, Charles Guo is an influential photographer who commonly shoots portrait photographies. In his photographs, he presents visual festivals through the use of lighting, shadow, and color. Alongside this, he also skillfully uses backgrounds, items, and other elements to enrich the images, making them more visually appealing and unique, adding on to his expressive style. When working as a fashion photographer, the composition of each photo, the poses and expressions of each model, and the various shot frames all imply avant-garde fashion senses. Hence, the ability to spread fashion influences is most likely one of the intents in various artist collaborations.
Looking at these images, Guo frequently uses different angles and vivid colors in his photographs to allude to different emotions and ideals. In his close up shots, sharp focus is usually to focus on the subject’s expressions and their emotions through the eyes. On the other hand, for medium shots or wide shots, texture and background is also effectively used as creative elements. In various of his images, he used clean backgrounds and bold color blocks to draw focus on the subject. At the same time, he also uses lots of contrasting and complementary color schemes in his pieces to create sharp contrasts and harmonious effects, contributing to the overall emotions implied.
These four images all highlight vivid colors and emotional expressions through the subjects’ eyes. In each photo, their facial expressions, gestures, and eyes all reveal different emotions. In the bottom left photograph, the eyes are looking downwards, which shows a sense of loneliness and serenity, however, the top right photograph shows a sense of boldness with the fierce glance of the eye.
His photographs really inspire me because they’re able to use various elements and composition to convey fashion senses while leaving space for interpretation. In his photographs, a range of techniques were used, from the different angles and setups for lighting to the surreal colors, which connects to my vision for this set. For my set, I want to convey strong sense of emotions that can connect with the audience, which is heavily emphasized in Guo’s photographs. Also, as different colors can drastically imply different moods and meanings, Guo’s manipulation of lighting and the environment often creates complementary effects and depth; inspiring me to explore this area in this set.
Favorite image
The subject of the photograph is a female figure (celebrity in real life) taking a set of photographs that heavily emphasizes on the vibrant use of colors. Since the framing of the photograph uses a medium close-up shot, the main emphasis is on the artist herself without any modifications on the background. However, I really liked the use of the background because the color was selectively chosen to create a complementary effect. While it was a simple and plain background, yet the bright yellow made the image more exciting and unique. At the same time, in this image, Guo really presents his vivid color techniques, incorporating complementary colors schemes with the contrast between yellow and purple, while creating an analogous and natural color scheme with the yellow, orange, red, and pink. Ultimately, while the color combination seems natural, yet it also places an emphasis on the subject’s clothes, which I found really fascinating.
Upon first sight, the subject’s eyes really caught my attention because of it’s sharp focus and the fierce stare implies a sense of boldness and strength. On top of this, in the pose, as she covers her eyes with another fake eye, new contents were revealed as well. Seen from the glove that she wore, the glove was made out of leather and there were red spikes on it, suggesting the symbol of a dragon. Thus, when she covers her eye with an eye of a “dragon”, the inference leaves me to ponder if that contributes to the sense of strength seen in the photo. However, there are no definite answers and the photograph allows audiences to develop their own understanding of the image, which is another key to Guo’s photographs. Though the composition of the photograph and the lighting and shadows used, a stylistic atmosphere was created. Also, as the light was positioned behind the model, the lighting made the background really bright, contrasting it towards the subject’s face, which was relatively darker. Subsequently, the shadow created depth in the photograph, and the faint silhouette of the spikes on the glove was nicely portrayed. Although the background color’s yellow, yet blue and purple light was casted upon the subject’s face. The technique of using complementary colors not only highlighted the subject in front, but also gave more form and shape to the subject’s facial features. For example, the purple created a natural contrast and shape for the subject’s temples, and the blue color acts as a highlighting color. Overall, Guo’s use of color, composition, and other elements all highlighted the subject’s face and emotional expressions, which further brought out the creative and fierce mood in this photograph.
Least favorite image
In this image, the photographer’s point of view is above the subject, tilting the camera downwards when taking this photograph. With the subject positioned in the center of the image, the small figure seemed quite distant from the camera. I believe that this picture was taken to capture the beautiful environment alongside the color created with nightfall. Frequently, the ocean is matched with a sunny weather and blue skies, however, this picture brought out another kind of mood and emotions when taken at night. Although the background was dark, the dark blue created a peaceful and subtle atmosphere. Additionally, the rocks were a nice match with the empty and vast background, which also helped create depth and contrast within the photograph. Compared to the empty and open space in the back of the image, the rocks in the front showed signs of repetition and pattern, embedding elements into the image.
Since the female figure is wearing a white t-shirt with a yellow jacket tied around her, she stands out really well against the background and guides the audience to mainly focus on the subject first when looking at the image. However, this photo didn’t really stand out and create excitement for me at first glance. I feel like this might be because of the composition and framing of the photo, where the subject is placed directly in the middle and quite small as well, making it less unique and appealing. While the subject is crouching on the ground with her head leaning against her hand, this pose didn’t really bring out any effect in the photo and create content. While the pose is well-rounded for many different settings, and can be inspirational for future sets, yet it wasn’t as expressively shown in this photo. Overall, this photograph didn’t really appeal to me because it wasn’t as exciting as some of Guo’s other photos and seemed to only capture the setting in the moment. Nonetheless, the lighting was skillfully used as always to softly brighten up the image without being overexposed or too dim, which is really important as it was taken at night.
For this set, the images were taken in the style of Charles Guo, in which he’s a master in skillfully applying lighting and color techniques to enforce his image. As a fashion photographer, Guo’s images usually express infinite creativity and allowed me to understand that portrait photography is not only meant for capturing stories with realistic backgrounds or depictions, but it can also be more abstract, fun, and emotionally creative. Inspired by his sense of aesthetic, in my blue and green photos, I approached portraiture photography with a different viewpoint and applied some of his commonly used techniques to influence aesthetic styles. For example, in many of the photographs, the color scheme of blue, purple, and pink was seen, which is also a type of color scheme that Guo uses in his photo shoots. The analogous color scheme not only created a more mystical, hazy, and dystopian atmosphere, but it also allowed the photographs to better set up a mood for the overall theme that evolves around teenagers. Adding onto this point, as I mainly wanted to focus on teenagers as my target audience, the subject in the photographs is also a teenager, which helps communicate the overall message. Additionally, the color scheme always appear in cyberpunk themes and creates powerful visual impacts, which can help draw the audience’s attention to the main subject in sharp focus. Additionally, I also used colors to imply different emotions, where blue often alludes to sadness and loneliness, where red implies danger. Similar to Guo’s images, the usage of lighting and brightness was focused on in my green and blue photographs. Sometimes, soft lighting was casted in the background to build an atmosphere, other times, the positions for lighting was shifted around to create different effects. In some of the images, lighting was casted from the side, which helps show the features of the subject’s side face, while casting a shadow on the face as well, illustrating sad and dark emotions. In these images, lighting was also experimented with to portray a illuminated outline of the figure where the lighting is casted from the back, or a bright focus on the face when the lighting is casted from the front. Additionally, the images also showed diverse use of props. Instead of simply showing the butterfly effect, the butterflies on the subject’s face actually symbolized peers that contributed to cyberbullying, and this was combined with the different pieces of shredded paper covered on the subject’s face and the hurtful comments shown on the background, as well as the phone that the subject is constantly starring at. On the other hand, the subject’s facial expressions, which includes staring up that expresses emptiness, and looking down to express addictive behaviors, anxiety, stress, and sadness, these techniques used in the photographs all combine to imply the extremely harmful impacts behind cyberbullying, where no one is innocent and everyone is a victim.
Red Photos
This set is titled “Butterflies in Our Society” and I chose these images because I believe that they express different perspectives to the same issue of rumors and cyberbullying that I wanted to express. Although the butterfly effect seems vague, but I attempted to incorporate it into this set to unveil the content that every small comment and every small action may result in a huge impact and severely impact another individual. Thus, the repetition of butterflies were seen in all three images. Not only does the prop make the images more visually appealing, standing out from ordinary photos by having butterflies on the subject’s face, but it also directly hints at the symbol that I’m trying to imply. Instead of making the audience interpret the butterfly effect, I want to guide them to realize that each individual who makes a comment online against a person is a “butterfly” themselves. Every time we say a comment like “I agree, I don’t like her either”, although the comment might seem small, however, when they build up, an individual can get really hurt, and I want to express this emotion through my red photos. I believe the message was also communicated through the emphasis on atmosphere through color and lighting, as well as the poses and facial expressions of the subject. In all three images, I chose a similar color scheme while having slight differences that I believe adds to the strength of my images. In the first image, a blue lighting was casted in the background and on the subject’s face, which implies a lonelier atmosphere. Additionally, the focus was sharpened upon the subject’s face, where her facial expressions revealed unhappiness and fear. Although she was looking up, but the casted shadow from the lighting darkened half her face, not only creating contrast, but it also darkened the mood, allowing the audience to better interpret the sad and lonely emotions through this image. For her pose, she remained crouching, hugging her knees and staring at her phone, with a brim of the phone in the photo to place implication. This further alludes to the comments harm to her, and her anxiety from it. Often times, when we care about something, no matter if it’s hurtful or nice, we tend to pay a lot of focus on it, which is what I was trying to express through this image. In the second image, a different side of cyberbullying was connected, where she gives in to the public, and becomes apologetic and self-depressive, despite not doing anything wrong. In the third image, a lost and dystopian mood was given, where I focused on the more abstract elements instead to suggest misted and lost emotions. I believe that composition and framing worked well with the images. As the subject was placed in sharp focus in the second image, it was also placed in the center, which actually created a great effect this time, despite breaking the rule of third that people tend to follow. The framing allowed the audience to focus on the subject and the phone in front upon first glance, where the phone offered depth of field between the foreground, subject, and background. The “I’m Sorry” text displayed on the phone communicates the subject’s fragile state and a pressuring atmosphere for the audience, helping them connect and relate to the social events that happen around us everyday. Furthermore, the pieces of paper that was attached to the subject’s face as a prop relates to the comment that she receives everyday, further connecting with the butterflies as well. I really liked the piece of comment “fat” that stood out, which allows the audience to gain better understanding of what the pieces of paper meant, and made them more meaningful. Ultimately the element of words and props made the images more realistic and expressed a deeper story. As a photographer, I believe that I learnt better editing techniques from my previous tasks. Applying that onto this set, I was able to create a better atmosphere through the slight adjustments in exposure and contrast, which helped sharpen the images. Additionally, in the third image, the image would’ve never came to this state without editing. The slight motion blur was edited to build up the lost atmosphere and made the image more abstract and aesthetically pleasing. At the same time, a beam of red light was edited to cast onto the subject’s eye, which suggests the blinded viewpoints and dangerous emotions, and the edited words within the beam of light suggests the hateful comments online, slowly captivating the subject. Something I need to further develop and do differently next time is my use of lighting. Sometimes, it was hard to adjust the lighting to make them fully appropriate for my vision, which led to overexposures or blurred focuses. Next time, I may always cast a light on the subject’s face to ensure that the shuttle speed will not affect the focus on the subject, and I will adjust the lighting accordingly to make them more subtle and appropriate for the theme, which I look forward to doing in the next set. In attempt to improve the photos, I believe that not having bright contrast in the background alike the first image, and having more subtle and soft lighting may be able to portray the sad and pressuring atmosphere better, which is an area for improvement in the future.
Critique
The framing of the subject’s face is slightly towards the right, which gave enough space to highlight the beam of light and alludes to the detaching soul and atmosphere. Also, the closeup of the subject’s side face and the composition makes the image more visually appealing compared to blindly showing a front view of the subject closing her eyes. Her dragging lip corners that are pointing downwards expresses sad and unhappy emotions that she contains, which can affect the audience’s emotions as well. The focal length of the closeup used places emphasis on the subject’s face without the distraction from the clothes or pose that she might have, which helps build the overall dystopian mood and communicate the message of loneliness and lost against all the negative bullying comments. Additionally, the image is not overexposed, and quite dim as well, with the accurate use of exposure and ISO in order to support the dark and suppressive atmosphere. Looking at the image, I want to draw the audiences attention to the eye upon first glance, which is highlighted by the red beam of light, contrasting from the blue background. The blue background help create a sad, isolated, and depressing atmosphere with the use of soft lighting, while the edited red beam of light implies danger and wickedness of the hateful comments. Not only this, but the use of complementary colors creates striking visual differences, with the contrast between red and blue, and the subject’s face stands out against the blue background as the red color reflects upon the subject’s face. Hitting directly at the subject’s eyes, the red beam of light communicates the message of power and dominance of hate, while the visible hate words are shown to create more direct connections with the vision. Connecting with this, the shadow of one butterfly on the subject’s forehead combines with the red light to deepen the story behind this image. While it adds more details to the subject’s face and offers artistic conceptions, it also alludes to how she’s surrounded by individuals who contribute to unconscious and micro-bullying, serving as “butterflies” in her life, where small impacts build up to creating the fragile state seen in the image. When the audience look at this picture, I hope that this nuance portrait will be aesthetic to look at, as it embeds abstract techniques with motion blurs. Yet, I hope that they can gain a deeper interpretation, realizing the severity, seriousness, and critical situation behind bullying, thus connecting with the subject to feel sad and lonely under the situation, and to feel aware and vary of the social issue. After looking at this set, I hope that they’ll become more aware of their actions and hopefully raise awareness to this issue, preventing more individuals to become the victim of bullying.
These are my red photos for set 1. For my three images, the element of focus was emphasized and my set evolved around the concept of using blurred focus. Inspired by Uta Barth, I tried to capture photographs to influence aesthetic taste and interpretations based on self connections. I think the red photos really highlighted my intent by creating different moods and atmospheres that were created with the use of focus and colors. In the creation process, I tried to take pictures at various locations with different lighting and aperture to create different feels. I think these three photos worked really well in presenting colors, shapes, and tone in addition to the main usage of blurred focus. For example, in the picture taken during the snowfall, I experimented with white balance in order to elaborate on the white, snowy background, trying to connect with the audience through the content presented. The blurred focus applied made the image seem more subtle, yet, clear perspective lines were still evident, drawing the audience to the focal point that leads far beyond what the photograph captured, making the image more compelling. The scenario of a beautiful winter wonderland was truly expressed through this image, yet, wit the manipulation of focus and color, a quiet and empty atmosphere was also expressed, while the piece can be interpreted differently by viewers. Additionally, the second image was very colorful, and I mainly experimented with lighting and colors in this one. Although the background does not fully give away the subject and content, however, the vibrant colors shown in the image significantly influenced the mood. Whilst the blurred focus gives the audience more room for imagination, the color blocks immediately allows them to relate with similar emotions, which tends to be happy and cheerful ones. Looking at this image, even through the blurred lens, we can guess that this was taken at a carousel, and the colorful background really makes think about our childhoods and happy memories. I believe that the light flares that were captured through the adjustments of the aperture really brought out the creativity of this photograph. Shimmering against the dark night, a sense of warmness and aesthetic was created, influencing the mood of the image as well. Lastly, a darker and heavier mood was implied in the last image. Focusing on the use of colors and tone, the contrast between the vibrant light spots really stood out at night. I believe that the color reflections against the street added a nice touch to the photograph, and the light flares also formed a soft perspective line that guides the audience’s eyes when looking at the image. Through this image, I hope that the photograph can make the viewer’s relate to their own personal experiences. Against the night sky, these light flares created by the shining beams of the cars really underlined a sense of busyness through the spectacular view. Overall, looking at these three images as a whole, I believe that they worked really well in implying different atmospheres and moods. Subconsciously, the viewers will feel different emotions when viewing these photographs, which was what I ultimately tried to achieve.
Going forwards, I hope that I can further develop and improve on this set by taking more images throughout various time frames during a day. Although this time, I experimented mostly with different locations, however, I feel like images taken at different times can also influence mood and atmosphere. For example, images taken outdoors at golden hours or during noon will more likely include warm colors while images taken during dawn might be less vibrant. Subsequently, I think that I can also work on incorporating more formal elements such as shapes and lines in my photographs. Although I explored the concept of lines in my photographs through the alignment of abstract elements, however, I believe that this area can still be strengthened.
For my next set, I want to continue experimenting with colors and tone in order to influence mood and atmosphere. However, I want to try using sharp focuses instead next time to capture more realistic images. This may allow me to explore more on lines, perspectives, and texture while enhancing my usage with colors. I plan to continue taking street photography and using architectures and landscapes as subjects while experimenting with composition.
Attached, is an overview of the images that I took and selected as my blue, green, and red photos.
Among my “blue” photos, I’ve circled the images that I liked in “green” and “red”. Inspired by the photographer Uta Barth, I utilized and set out to capture landscapes and streets through a blurred lens. Focused on transforming different ordinary settings and environments to look extraordinary through blurred focus and color, I wanted to influence the emotions of the viewers through intended moods and atmospheres that the photos implied. I think I did really well in using different aperture and focus accordingly. For instance, in some pictures, I adjusted the aperture in order to create bigger light spots in the images. Through this, an emphasis on lighting is presented, and the light spots acted as shapes in the photograph. Not only does this change the mood of an image, but can also affect the overall composition and focal point. In other images, I tried to adjust the focus that allows the viewer to view the scenario as a whole through a blurred lens. This allowed me to focus on composition and perspective while using a blurred lens, and lines were an important element that I focused on as well. In these attempts, I was really able to focus on the tones of images that were manipulated to bring forth concepts that were portrayed in the photographs. Capturing vibrant colors with dark backgrounds, color contrast between black and white, and bright lights against heavy colors created nice tones within. For some photographs, colors and tones were kept in mind to create certain moods and I was really pleased by the effects that it created. Also, I think the adjustments of the aperture and focus really made the photos unique. In my opinion, the blurred photographs really brought out the beauty of the environments where the color blocks were really evident and the light beams made images more extraordinary as they portrayed different colors with a surreal sense of abstraction, implying moods without telling the audience what the image “actually” portrays.
Through my triptych, I want to share the beautiful environments and colors that surround us to influence aesthetic styles. Lots of the time, we don’t realize the beauty within ordinary settings or simply how our environment can influence us. I want the audience to feel differently when viewing each photo in the triptych, truly discovering how colors can set divergent atmospheres and moods that may affect their interpretation. Alongside the content and abstract elements that’ll be captured, I want the audience to be able to connect themselves and feel various emotions when viewing the photograph. For inspiration, I want to develop my ideas by looking for photographs that explores different colors and settings using blurred focus. While different colors and settings can influence the tone and mood of the photograph, blurred focus allows viewers to depict and understand the image in unique ways.
Paul Strand, Abstraction, Twin Lakes, Connecticut’
I feel like some things that the photographer might’ve been interested in when capturing this picture could be the shadows cast by the lights, the shapes, and the patterns. While the sunlight cast shadows on top of the surface and its surroundings, it created depth in the image and contrast between the background and the surface. However, they also blended in with each other in a sense, which made the photo unique. Also, the casted shadow reflected shapes onto the surface, adding another element to the photograph that enriched the photo’s composition. At the same time, the shadow formed patterns as seen in the image, where the parallelograms on the background and surface created diagonal lines that captured the viewer’s attention.
If I were the photographer, I would name the photograph “Unknown reflections” as it reflects the shadows of unknown objects onto the surface. Viewers are left to guess and interpret the actual surface portrayed in the photo and what objects cast these shadows.
One thing that I find unusual about this photo is that there’s no main subject indicated, and although there’s leading lines formed with the shadows, however, theres no specific focusing point in the image, and instead, different viewers can interpret the piece differently, making the piece more abstract.
The shadows captured in the image created lines, shapes, and formed patterns. Seen above, the formal element of lines were used to form the outlines of the shapes such as parallelograms and triangles. Additionally the multiple parallelograms could be seen as a interesting pattern as they line up with each other, and they acted as diagonal leading lines. Subsequently, the tone and focus of this piece made the photo really unique as there were evident contrast seen between the shadows and the surface while there wasn’t any intended focus points, heavily emphasizing on abstract movements instead.
I think the best part of this photo is that there’s no specific subject that the photographer tried to emphasize on, and the combination between various formal elements were used to create depths with abstraction. The lighting and color of this photo set a really peaceful and calm atmosphere, and the shadows and composition made it even more aesthetic.
