I had a lot of options because I took all of the following photos during the 15-minute break. But, because the message conveyed by my photos is somewhat depressing, I didn’t want to choose any photos in which someone is smiling at their reflection because it wouldn’t make sense. My secondary goal was to choose a photograph with a clear long exposure to achieve the blurred effect. For example, I have some yellow pictures with good long exposure but the person is smiling in the mirror, so it was tagged as yellow. My green images all have a decent long exposure, but some of them just look frantic. As a result, I ended up with the red images.

Marlene Dietrich

A broken/damaged mirror with a reflection is a typical Dietrich image. She shoots these images in monochrome to enhance depth. I suppose she uses this to convey melancholy or depression. Or, on occasion, even rage. This, I believe, is highly dependent on the person’s facial expression. For example, on the left, the woman appears to be enraged, whereas on the right, she appears to be hurt.

Nicholas Godden

For almost a decade, Nicholas Goodden has worked as a professional photographer, photography educator, writer, and content provider. His work has been shown at Proud Galleries, Hoxton Hotels, and the W Hotel, and he specializes in urban and street photography. He employs a photography technique known as selective color by utilizing technology/editing. I believe he does this to make his work more like pop art since he only shows color in colorful objects.

These two photographers motivated me for set 02 since I wanted to try to continue with my first set. The image below depicts my concept for Set 2. Dietrich was the inspiration for the mirror in the center, which is damaged. And I’ll make only that part monochrome through editing. But, the sides will be tinted and the mirror will be in fine condition. This demonstrates how others perceive the person, whether it is attractive, kind, amusing, or anything else that they do not see in themselves.

This is my finished first set after the editing process. I chose to color the sections with long exposure black and white (monochrome) to represent the human behavior when a person refuses to recognize/feel the reality/truth. It is also referred to as denialism, which is why my work is titled denialism. As you can see, I included reflection into this project by using a standing mirror.

What will your message be?

Through my images, I hope to demonstrate when a person refuses to recognize reality/truth. In other terms, denialism is the psychology of human behavior. This is when a person rejects accepting reality in order to avoid a psychologically unpleasant fact.

How will you show this message with your photography-

I’ll try to convey my message by reflecting a fuzzy image in a mirror.  Alexey Titarenko inspired me with the long exposure technique, which would be used to show blurriness. In this case,  long exposure symbolizes what no one wants to see/believe in life. If possible, I’d like to try to make items reflected in the mirror monochrome while leaving things outside the mirror in their native hues.

The two images above are by Alexey Titarenko, who specializes in monochrome and long-exposure photography. I chose these two images because some people may wish to ignore the idea that a family can get along, that friend can hang out, that jobs may be successful, and so on.

• The WORKING title of my project is “denialism.”  
• I want my audience to feel empathy for the subject/individual. 
• I will get inspiration and develop my ideas by looking for photographs by Alexey Titarenko that show long exposure photos in monochrome.

Blast #05070 1998 Naoya Hatakeyama, Aperture/Minneapolis Institute of Art

Lee Friedlander 

The images above are by Nao Hatakeyama and Lee Friedlander. Hatakeyama frequently photographs with color and motion. Friedlander, on the other hand, captures photos that are still and monochrome. Friedlander also appears to like more natural-looking photographs. He frequently takes shots of the road, people, and houses from his point of view. This style differs from Hatakeyama in that it incorporates several movements such as explosions, rain, and lighting. What’s noteworthy is that, based on my study, I couldn’t find many people in his images. The one thing they have in common is that it is from their point of view, not from a bird’s eye view or any other point of view.

When capturing photographs, both Lisette Model and Antonio Gutierrez Pereira employ monochrome. Both of these photographers, in my opinion, only photograph humans and not nature. Pereira’s artworks frequently feature eyeballs, whether through glasses, reflections, or other means. While Model merely photographs slightly older people from her point of view. Models also take a lot of shots of women; there aren’t many males in her photos.

Returning to Hatakeyama, this photographer Robert Holden, well known for his work on the burning house project, they both have one thing in common: they don’t really incorporate humans in their works. Another thing they have in common is that they do not employ monochrome in their photographs.