Initial thought

my initial thought for this project is to advocate the protection of ocean animals through messages. I will be taking my photographs in the studio, and i will be using props, lighting and camera techniques to achieve my purposes. I was then inspired by the photographer Mandy Barker who spent years focusing

on ocean plastic debris and the ocean animal protections. However, i dont have access to ocean and therefore, i decided to use my model to represent ocean animals and i will be taking pictures in the studio.

 

What will my message be?

for this project, i want my audience to feel like being inspired and are motivated to stop wasting resources to better protect the ocean animals. The audiences should be able to interpret lots from my images and are eventually inspired and advocated to protect the animals.

 

How will i show this in my photograph?

For this project,  i will be using a “model” to repre

sent a ocean animal, who is suffocating and dying from the ocean debris(plastic, rubbish etc.) I will be using a blue lighting and reflect it to the white background, and this is to achieve the feeling of ocean. I will also be utilizing a slow shutter speed, which is to make the floating plastic more vague whereas the model being clear.

 

Artist research – Mandy Barker

these are some photographs from Mandy Barker, who is an photographer that demonstrates the plastic debris and the pollution within the ocean. These debris formed cool shapes that made the construction of the image looks fascinating. I was fascinated by the images as it does not only limit to ocean debris but can also be related to space debris. This inspired me to take pictures of how the ocean animals are suffocating under the extremely large amount of plastic floating on/in the ocean. Furthermore, my purpose is also to advocate and promote ocean protection to save animals.

Analysis of a particular picture

this is a picture took by mandy barker that illustrates plastic debris. All the plastic together forms a shape of circle, which is really cool and gives a feeling of being stared by eyes. The colour is really light, which contrast with the black background colour and emphasize the colourful plastic. This also indicates how despite being so colourful and beautiful, it is still dangerous and venomous to ocean animals.

Yellow Photos

these are my Yellow

these are my yellow photos for set 1. I have carefully used props (plastic bags and rubbishs) and adjust the colour to create a sense of feeling like ocean. The reason why i chose these photos are mainly because that they’re in focus, and the atmosphere in these photo tend to fit in the theme of what i want to present. In the pictures that were took later, there is a tattoo on the model’s face. This is because that oringially except for the background colour which could be a representation of ocean, nothing else is used to indicate the “ocean animal” part. Therefore, i asked art teacher to made a tattoo on the model’s face, which is a whale in ocean. This further contributed to letting audience better understand what is the topic of the photograph and added more aesthetic towards the picture.

 

Green photos

these are my green photos for set 1. The way i selected these photographs is by eliminating the ones that does not have a clear focus point or are shot badly. For instance, i’ve elimated all the ones that are a bit blurry, since my shutter speed in quite low and when the model moves, the picture becomes blurry. Then, i’ve also elimated those ones where others are in the photograph. This is because during the process of taking the picture, I’ve asked several people to help with throwing the plastic bag, and some people photograph accidentally included those poeple inside.

 

Red photos

these two are my red photos. I chose these two photographs specifically because they are the best demonstration of my topic – ocean animals’ sufferation. These pictures are clearly in focus, and there is no others included in the pictueres. For both of the pictures, i’ve used a quite low shutter speed in order to capture the vagueness of the plastic bag. However, the mdoel is kept static so she can be in focus. Furthermore, the emotion presented by the models are all suitable. The emotion in picture one is more like upset, worried and sad. Whereas the emotion in the second picture corresponds with the image’s title “let us breathe” as the model looks suffocating and dying.

 

SET TWO

 

 

artist research J Henry Fair

J Henry Fair is a photographer who is interested in taking pictures of pollution. In his photograph, there’s trait of air pollution, water pollution, ocean pollution etc. Among all these pollution, the one that inspires me the most is ocean pollution, as i want to make connection between the first set and the second set. Therefore, after researching about him and his photography, i’ve discovered that he did an amazing job at utilizing the colour to create a sense of mixture that conveys the meaning of pollution. Therefore, i further developed this idea into my own set. However, what’s different about our pictures is that his photograph are taken mostly in reality and abstract, whereas my photograph is created through the utilization of studio lighting, colour mixtures and others.

 

 

2

this is an example of J Henry Fair’s photograph. In this picture, we can clearly tell that he conveyed the meaning “pollution” through the utilization of colour mixture and structure. In this picture, the background colour blue represent the ocean, and the light red represent the pollution. The bright red contrast with the dark blue behind to emphasize the pollution, further indicating how damaging the pollution is to environment. Furthermore, this photograph is not fully straight, making it more like a 3D photograph. This on the other hand can let the audience think of earth, which has the same colour and shape.

This picture inspired me to use colour mixture to represent pollution

 

Yellow Photos

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these are my yellow photos for set 2. In this set, i planned to use a box that is fulled with water and place it under the studio light which is adjusted to ocean-like colour. Then, i borrowed black paint from art and pour the pigment in, the black pigment is used to represent the pollution. I have elminated all the test shots, which are token to see the colour. And i’ve also eliminated ones that are out of focus or the ones that are repreated. (because these pictures are taken with continous shooting)

 

Green photos

these are my green photos for set 2. For the green photos, i’ve eliminated ones that have bad focus. And because that this set is shot is continuous shooting, there are a lot of identical pictures, so i eliminated them all. Furthermore, my aim is also to select pictures that have captured the pouring process and also when it is slowly dissovling in the water. And i’ve also eliminated ones that are bit blurried due to slow shutter speed.

Red photos

These are my red photos for set 2. I’ve eliminated all the ones that cannot convey my topic clearly, which is ocean pollution. And i’ve utilized 3 pictures to show the process of ocean being polluted. With the first image the pollution being poured, the second image the pollution being spread, and the third image the pollution has contaminated the ocean.