To conclude this year of Photography 2, I photographed a familiar street. All images were captured using long exposure and monochrome techniques. Monochrome was used to enhance the emotional impact of each image. Although it may not be obvious, each image depicts various modes of transportation to demonstrate how time passes. This covers cars, trucks, and buses. Aside from vehicles, I also added walking and bicycles.

The images below are my final Set 2 photos. As you can see, each image depicts various types of transportation, such as cars, buses, bicycles, motorbiking, trucks, and even walking. The first image is self-explanatory; it depicts a bus transporting people to a new location. I chose this image over others of this bus because it had the right amount of movement and the bus was nicely framed. That is, it did not cover too much or too little of the image. The next image shows a lot of cars, but I chose this one specifically because it looked really cool how one car is not blurred because it was a red light, but the other cars in front of it were all moving. The third image is simply of people crossing the street. One of the simplest but most time-consuming modes of transportation. The following image shows both cars and bicycles, but I thought it was cool how only the bicycle was moving. The subsequent image shows both cars and bicycles, but I thought it was cool how only the bicycle was moving. Moving on, the fifth image, which is probably my favorite, depicts a biker waiting to turn but other cars were all moving, so I liked how the biker appeared to be trapped by cars. The final image is quite simple, but I thought it was appropriate to include it because it was a truck.

These are all the images I took for Set 2 of Choices, Choices, Choices. Because I chose the technique movement, also known as long exposure, for this unit, I decided to photograph the street to demonstrate the various modes of transportation. Taking photographs of the street and how people travel to various locations demonstrates the passage of time. I decided to shoot all of my photos in monochrome because it adds depth and allows the different color saturations to stand out more. Pictures that were chosen in yellow or green are most likely lacking in movement and/or intrigue.

Choices, Choices, Choices for the second set I’ll be using the long exposure technique again, but this time for street photography. To capture the hustle and bustle of a busy street, I hope to include photographs of people walking, cars, and/or trains. This is used to emphasize the city’s dynamic nature by capturing moments of movement and activity on the street. This will almost certainly be captured in a city like Sanlitun. If possible I’ll try to make my photos more engaging and interesting, I’ll try to take long exposure photos when it’s dark, so the vehicle’s lights look cooler. My photographs for this set will be inspired by Michael Wesely who is known for long-exposure photography. He takes movement pictures in both monochrome and colored.

My red image for this set is shown below. Because I wanted to include movement in this set, I had my models move their heads side to side so that when the shutter speed was slowed down, the audience could see the movement of hair in the picture. I wanted to portray how many teenagers these days are very cautious and/or insecure about their faces by having my models cover their faces with their hair. This has increased significantly since COVID-19’s mask policy was discontinued. When posting on WeChat Moments, Instagram, and other social media platforms, more teenagers are editing their faces. As a result, the sad reality of many girls having to edit their faces, because they are unhappy with their current appearance, is depicted in monochrome because it adds depth.

I’ll be doing the movement for the new set and as part of the street photography. Long exposure, to be specific. This is because I wanted to continue in some ways from set 1, which included long exposure. Another reason I chose long exposure is that I believe it will look really cool to photograph people walking and/or cars moving in the long exposure effect. I want to take pictures like Ernst Haas, Alexey Titarenko, Frank Machalowski, and Bill Kouirinis in this unit. All of the photographers I’ve listed include images with long exposures of people walking down the street. As a result, their photos appear hectic. I want to convey a ‘feeling of movement’ and almost tell a story of time passing through this unit.

*already critiqued red photos and wrote artist statement before 🙂

True and False is the title of my second set. The false is visible on the mirror’s broken/damaged side. This represents how a person perceives themselves. Whether it’s their appearance, personality, or something else. On the other hand, a perfectly clean mirror reflects a perfectly fine image. This is the truth. The truth is how others perceive you to be, such as attractive, nice, and so on. One change I made to my set was that I was going to make the damaged side monochrome, but that didn’t work out because the broken mirror wasn’t very clear. That is, it did not stand out as much as I had hoped.

Although there may not be any visible differences seen through yellow to red, I picked a few pictures where my model will look at herself on the broken side of the mirror. While the other few are where she looks at the clean mirror. When she looks in the cracked mirror, she sees herself as she is, but when she looks in the perfectly clean mirror, she sees herself as she would like to be. The twist is that the model is actually already perceived by others as being attractive, nice, etc., so there aren’t any physical changes. Because she only sees herself in that way, the mirror is the only thing that has been broken or damaged.