Gene‘s Blog

In selecting these images for my project on urbanization, I aimed to capture the essence of the urbanized culture and the distinct fashion choices that characterize the area. This set of images showcases a group of people walking down the street, dressed in various styles, including “Waimai Xiaoge” (Delivery Xiaoge), firemen dressed in red, construction workers, etcetera which reflects the diverse fashion choices in the urban environment. The black and white composition was intended, but after my practice set I thought black and white was too tedious and emphasis on one type of colour would be more applicable espicially when bright colours are common in urban areas, thus putting emphasis on one specific colour adds a modern and sophisticated feel to the overall image, forcing the viewers to look at people and buildings in that specific colour, aligning with my intent to present a visually appealing and contemporary representation of urbanization. The images selected all have one core colour that is visually appealing when applified, and thus made the set.

The architectural elements in the background further emphasize the urban environment, highlighting the bustling city atmosphere. By focusing on the fashion and architecture, I believe these images effectively captures the essence of my project’s intent. It presents a new feel of modern-ness and a bustling city atmosphere, as parking lots, escalators, shops, and other urbanized features of Shine city are included in the photos.

In terms of visual language and skills, the composition of the images are well-executed. The placement of the group of people walking down the street creates a sense of movement and dynamism, espicially in the photo of the Waimai Xiaoge walking down the escalator and the two firemen happily socializing with each other while walking, adding to the lively feel of the urban environment. The choice to focus on one colour in those images enhances the visual impact and adds a timeless quality to the image.

I took inspiration from photographer Brandon Stanton, who captures the urban feel and the unique aspects, such as fashion, of his subjects. While Stanton’s work focuses on capturing the happiness and emotions of the people he encounters, I have taken a different approach by photographing in mainly capturing the bustling feel in Shine city. This allows me to create my own interpretation of urbanization while still utilizing Stanton’s composition techniques.

In conclusion, I believe my set of street photos is successful in showing the bustling feel of urbanization. It conveys the urbanized culture and shows the bustling people, including firemen and delivery Xiaoge in Shine city, and presents a visually engaging representation of urbanization. The images focus on one specific colour, along with the dynamic placement of the subjects, effectively captures the bustling city atmosphere and adds a modern and sophisticated feel to the image.

Critiquing images

This is my least favourite image because there are too many major colours and they conflict with my intent of focusing on one colour.

The subject of the image is a bustling city street with various elements of urban life. There is a construction truck parked on the side of the road, and a man is standing next to it. Several bicycles are parked on the sidewalk, indicating the popularity of cycling in the area. There are too many colours in this photo, and it is qute distracting. It includes, yellow, neon, blue and distracts the viewer from the subject of the image. The composition of the image appears to be relatively calm, still, and clearly organized. The main subjects are placed in the foreground, following the rule of thirds in terms of composition. The background is relatively simple, with a clear sky and some buildings visible, allowing the main subjects to stand out to some extent.

Considering the viewpoint, the image was taken from a stationary position, standing still. I used a wide-angle lens which allowed me to capture a lot of information in the image, providing a sense of the urban environment and the people within it.

I used a moderate aperture to ensure that both the foreground and background elements are reasonably sharp, capturing nearly everything in the foreground and near the middle.

The warm saturations of yellow captures the reader’s attention – but so does the blue on the signs, making the photo quite distractng.

In conclusion, the image includes good composition with ts depiction of a busy city street, capturing the essence of urban life and showcasing the various elements within the scene – but the amount of colours within the photo makes it a little distracting.

The image shows a man in a yellow jacket standing on a moving escalator, holding an umbrella. The Waimai Xiaoge is facing forward and looking straight ahead. The image is in color, allowing us to see the vibrant yellow of his jacket – while also lowering saturation for other colours, so that the yellow will stand out. The overall tone of the image is neutral, with yellow and greys, emphasizing the yellow. This gives the image a calm and balanced feel especially of the Waimai Xiaoge’s casual facial expression and the relaxing surroundings – there is nothing to do besides patiently wait while going down the escalator.

The composition of the image is calm, still, and clearly organized. The Waimaixiaoge is the main subject, occupying most of the frame. I used the rule of thirds to frame the scene: the foreground consists of the man and the umbrella, the mid-ground includes the moving escalator, and the background is blurred, adding depth of field to the image.

The viewpoint of the image appears to be straight on, as I was standing still and capturing the scene. I used a wide-angle lens to include more content of the image in the image. This lens choice draws the viewer’s attention to Waimai Xiaoge while also showing the surrounding environment.

The focus of the image is on the man and the yellow jacket, matching my intent to capture certain colours that standout – also matching Stanton’s intents. Moreover, more background and urban infrastructure is included, such as the elevator, with the background intentionally blurred to create depth.

After concluding from my tryout shoots, I decided to include some elements of colour instead of all black and white, espicially when some colours are more interesing than others in urban places. Thus, my statement of intent will not always follow black and white colours – but will still capture interesting fashion with supplements of interestng and urban architecture.

The photos below were taken in the most urban area possible in Changping. My intent claims that I hope to caption fashion and urbanization – but unfortunately, the location may be unable to completely fulfill that. Nonetheless, I still attempt to capture some architecture in the background for all of these photos, so they match my intent to some extent. Unfortunately, this is taken in a neighbourhood at night where everyone is taking a walk after dinner – the showcase of unique fashion is very difficult. However, these photos were the best at capturing light and architecture, thus they are the best that match my intent.

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Red selection:

This image links to my artist’s image as it involves people walking down the road, capturing the photo at a peculiar angle, making the picture very interesting. Moreover, just like the artist, this photo has plenty of detail – the tree and the ray of light follows the rule of thirds, with one person on the left third and another on the right, while the road follows through the middle. Something I did well here was capturing and customizing the composition, which is something I will proceed to be doing as well as making the people look natural. I have developed methods and skill to capture images with interesting composition by using objects to my advantage, such as the tree in the middle and the buildings on the sides – and the buildings match my intent.

This photo links to my artist as it captures what is going on in our community. Moreover, the architecture and surroundings are amplified – matching my statement of intent, highlighting architecture. I again used a tree to help make interesting composition. Although it seems like the tree is the subject captured, the background and surroundings are clearly more interesting. This is something I will be taking into account for my next set – the juxtaposition of something plain surrounded by chaotic and complex surroundings make the image very interesting.

This photo links to the artist just like the previous two do in the same way. However, this photo is different as the light pole separates the image into two halves: each half has interesting lines around the road with cool buildings following through to every corner of the image. Moreover, the focus on the sign is an additional element that the photo has captured – the surplus of elements in the photo makes it very interesting – a person, a dog, a sign, lines following roads, buildings, etc – matching my statement of intent. I will capture more elements while allowing them to supplement each other to create a cool visual appealing photo in my next set too.

This also captures cool buildings and streets aligning with my artist inspiration. This photo tells the story as it captures a community with what looks like a never-ending sidewalk. This shows how deep communities can be and cool shapes and lines will also be included in my final set. The buildings in the background and in focus give off a very warm community feel, and those emotions evoked by buildings is what I want in my photos to match my statement of intent.

The title of this project will be Urbanization, in which I will be taking some street photographs at Sanlitun. Since Sanlitun is part of the urbanized Beijing, I want to capture that as we don’t always see such architecture – Shunyi is not the best place to be if you want to enjoy urbanized culture. Since Sanlitun is very urbanized, I expect the fashion of the people there to be very distinct and interesting. I aim to capture the fashion and urbanization as well as the scene they create together when they are corroborated. I want my audience to feel like they are staring at a picture that is visually appealing and is located in the Downtown area of a city, feeling astonished as it brings them a new feel of modern-ness and a very city-feel, as well as presenting the bustling feel. I will take inspiration from photos taken in downtown areas of people and how they interestingly corroborate the “who” and the “where. Ultimately, my photos will be in black and white or very cold saturation so it captures the “silvery” feel of downtown buildings and general beauty of urbanized places.

The artist I will be taking inspiration from is called Brandon Stanton. Stanton’s work captures urbanization by showcasing the diverse individuals on city streets. He goes beyond capturing fashion and architecture alone and also into the stories and emotions of the people he encounters. Through his portraits and captions, he creates a connection between the subjects and the urban environment, effectively presenting the “who” and the “where.” Similar to my intent, Stanton’s photographs have a contemporary aesthetic. His use of colors, composition, and environmental and close-up shots adds a modern feel to his work and presents his audience with a warm, happy feeling of how everyone has that intricate touch to their lives when walking down the streets of New York by capturing the smiles on their faces. Although he takes his photograph in colour and aims to capture happiness, I can take his photos for inspiration and simply photograph in no color and instead of capturing happiness I can capture the bustling feel on the streets of Sanlitun. I chose this photographer since he also captures the urban feel and the special aspects such as fashion about his subjects. I will take a similar approach in utilizing his composition – but I won’t be using the emotion he is trying to establish. My photos are not necessarily going to be happiness based.

All these photos are close-ups or medium close-ups of people on the streets of New York. The majority present a warm, happy feeling. At the same time, the camera is always focused on the subjects’ gazes. The author uses natural lighting and natural surroundings in composition.

In this photo, the “bokeh” effect (purposely focusing on background instead of subject) is utilized. This fits my statement of intent as it captures the buildings (although not modernized enough) and captures the clothing fashion of people, being natural. I could apply this by taking pictures at the feet level in my actual set and focusing on the background instead of on the subject as well as utilizing black and white colours.

In this photo, the natural crowd and their contrasted colours of their clothing is very visually appealing. Although there could be more modernized buildings in the background, the fashion and people section aligns with my intent. In my actual set, I hope to mix in within crowds and take similar photos like this, with people naturally looking around and walking.

This photo captures movement. However, it is not as natural as I have stated in my intent, and it does not have urbanized buildings in the background. I can still utilize the same timing as I captured the movement quite perfectly.

This photo is quite interesting as the prop use and the natural pose could be used in my actual set. However, buildings need to be included.

This photo matches my statement of intent perfectly. Not only does it have buildings and fashion, but it also has perfect composition: Kylin is perfectly in the center being symmetrrical, presenting a near perfect pose and is very visually appealing

This set answers my intent because the volleyball brings back the happiness Mr. Kumi had back then, bringing nostalgia. The lighting further expresses this: one side of his face is lit up, signifying the “good old days,” with bright warm lights representing the “good.” The dark side of his face presents a contrast to the light, highlighting how much “light” and “brightness” volleyball brought to him. The focus on his gaze clearly presents the satisfaction and the happiness of him holding the volleyball. I named this photo “Back to the Past” because the happiness on his face and with one half-lighted tells the story of memory and nostalgia of the good old days, when he won every single game in that tournament, holding the “MVP” ball from back then. This corroborates with the author, Dawoud Bay, I took inspiration from as he also uses lighting and focus on the eyes to emphasize the facial expressions and emotions that the subject possesses when in a certain scenario: in his cases the students would show emotion in a classroom, in my case Mr. Kumi shows happiness when holding the tournament ball in which he won every single game in. This photo successfully answers my intent because it brought Mr. Kumi happiness and memories, in which I aim to do (triggering nostalgia from different cultures) in my intent. The culture section will be proven in the set with Mr. K, who came from a North American culture (photos below). Since my previous experimentation set, I realize that facial expressions are essential in reaching my intent of establishing nostalgia, and thus I realized that the props that can trigger emotion are very important. Therefore, the volleyball and the shirt Mr. Kumi brought was crucial to bringing him in character with the matching facial expression of my intention in these photos, which was something I learned.

“Back to the Past”

The above photo will have the same name as the set name, and will be the introductory photo.

The above photo is called “Spinning as a Winner.” Mr. Kumi’s remarkable control of the ball signifies his capability and composure when coaching the team that won every game in that tournament.

This one is called “Shining too Bright.” He covers his face in a setting position, as if the light is shining too bright – the light in this case symbolizes the achievements his team earned from that tournament.

Critique:

Composition: All the elements, including the props and lighting, support the subject in this photo as the props match my intent to trigger nostalgia. The negative space and props causes the viewer to focus on the subject with no distractions from the background. However, the background may be too plain – Dawoud Bay’s work consists of corresponding backgrounds, which I could have utilized as well. I indeed went to overboard with amplifying facial emotions and subjects themselves, missing the opportunity to add a more interesting but not distracting background. Despite the missing opportunity, the plain background causes the viewer to initially look straight at Mr. Kumi and Mr. K, which matches my intent of highlighting the identity of the two teachers. The story that both sets tell are pretty clear: Mr. Kumi, enjoying his last year at ISB, flexes and happily explains how important that volleyball means to him and how much glory and pride that specific tournament brought him. I was astonished at how proud and happy he was when he explained the meaning of the ball to me and during the photoshoot, I would like to thank him for his dedication to this photo set.

Below is a new set from Mr. K to contrast Mr. Kumi’s set to match my intent of comparing different cultures. Mr. Kumi has a volleyball-based European identity due to his culture, while Mr. K has a music-based American identity. Similar lighting is utilized, except the point is to amplify Mr. K’s high school life being brought back: he is once again in his high school varsity baseball jacket, holding his beloved guitar, and has the cool “high school kid” face on him, matching my intent. This is supported by photographic technique, such as the amount of negative space around him, pushing him to the left of the frame so the viewers would focus on him and the guitar, the focus is on his gaze so the viewers know that they are supposed to focus on his identity, and the saturation is higher so that the photograph is not as cold, as nostalgia is meant to have a warm feel, as my experimentational set from before proved: warmer colours had a better effect when establishing nostalgia. Moreover, taken by the inspiration from the previous author whom utilizes the same lighting this set also puts the lighting on half of his face. It also utilizes the same close shots as the author I have taken inspiration from, as both utilizes props appropriately to amplify facial emotions of the person within the picture. This corresponds to what I experimented in my first set as again, the facial expression was amplified by negative space and a plain background, as well as props being crucial in triggering the sincere emotion. In Mr. K’s set, he wears his proud baseball jacket from his high school varsity team, in which he was especially proud about. His guitar represents his other hobby, and to contrast Mr. Kumi’s set, his facial expression gives him the feeling of a cool high school student: the cultural contrast is quite clear. The sports culture puts a warm smile on Mr. Kumi’s face, but pushes Mr. K to look cool and proud about it in a much different way. This contrast fullfils my intent as I aim to capture the cultural differences among the sets. When looking at Mr. Kumi’s photos, the viewer should feel warm after hearing the context and should feel happy for Mr. Kumi about all the achievements he has earned for ISB after all these years. When looking at Mr. K’s photos, the viewer should feel like they are staring at an intimidating high school jock whom excels at baseball and music.

“High School Music-Jock” 

This picture is named “Guitar Menace.” He seems to be enjoying his guitar but at the same time looking at the camera in a menacing way, as if saying “DON’T TOUCH MY GUITAR.”

This picture is named “Going Back Home.” He lifts his guitar as if he just finished a concert with a satisfied look after an amazing performance at his high school, with his proudest varsity baseball jacket on.

I have taken these photos in the style of the author I took inspiration from, whom took photos of high school students decorated with items that symbolize their academic careers in school because I aim to capture this sense of nostalgia from high school with teachers that have graduated a long time ago with the same props and feeling.

The above are the 10 photos I have selected as a result of my green selection. I have selected these photos because they not only present the sense of being a student, but also something that is visually intriguing. For example, many of them include intriguing facial expressions that are distinct to most other photos I took before, their props are very symbolic and important to the photo to convey the sense of nostalgia, or that the utilization of space and lighting was performed exceptionally well, or a mixture of multiple details mentioned. For example, the book and the football are examples of the props that make the photos more intriguing.

These photos convey a student that is enjoying academic related hobbies as a high school students, which can be shown within the sophisticated facial expressions and some details. The details include the props, the braces, and the lighting. They tell the story of a high school student who is captured enjoying school related subjects. The braces prove that he is a student, the book and the football reveal his hobbies, and his facial expression tells us how he feels. When taking these photos, I have learned to use warm lighting when conveying a positive emotion within the photo, and I have also learned to use negative space to highlight the subject figure, and have learned to adjust the camera to focus on the subject’s eyes so focus is on the subject and to follow the rulesof portraiture. Comparing to previous tasks, I have learned to put focus on a subject that I want to capture, in which utilizing negative space, focus on eyes, and lighting saturation could complement. In the next shoots, I would like to decorate the background a bit more, and exclude external distractions from the background, as well as finding more intriguing props and clothing to help establish the nostalgia when filming grown adults.

This is one of the best photos in the set. When first looking at the photo, the eyes of the audience will be drawn towards his eyes as well: it shines brightly and it is as if he is looking at hope and the past coming from his facial expression. Moreover, the lighting presents a story: he is staring at brightness. The ball in his hands show his childhood passion, and this could be applied to the actual set where it tells the story of a grown up looking back on their past, and in the photo they would be looking at brightness. There are no distractions, and exposure and focus are all correct. Thus, this photo will be taken into account in the final set due to its beautiful light composition and the gaze of the subject.

This photo can serve as a counterexample. In some cases, I seek movement to corroborate the prop in the photo. However, in this example, the movement caused the camera to go out of focus and caused many distractions in the photo, such as the shadow, the weird facial expression, and the prop turning from a supplement to a conflicting item. Moreover, it does not really tell a story. To inflict nostalgia, the photos should tell stories through composition, lighting, props, etc. Therefore, this one is too distracting due to movement and in the actual photoshoot I seek to minimize movement and will try to capture moments where movement does not serve as a distraction within the photo.

During the identity unit, I will be making a set of photos called “Nostalgia: What were you like when you were in high school? Exploring multiple cultures” The societal issue I aim to explore is the youth and past of the teachers in different cultures, especially helping them relive and revive their memories in high school by dressing them and telling them to act like they did in high school. I want my audience to feel warm when looking at those photos, as if they were watching someone revisit their favourite childhood park and feel happy for the people in the photos too. I also want them to be intrigued when looking at the high school culture of different people. I hope to obtain inspiration from photos that seem to recreate the childhood for certain adults, such as those published by the Guardian, and inspiration from objects that were trending in the 1990s, to better create the correct atmosphere to trigger the nostalgia. I aim to use a black background, intended “bad” light as most photos from the 1990s of shining and bright light that blurs the photo out a bit.

The author I hope to take inspiration from is called Dawoud Bey. Dawoud Bey uses his photos to capture the individuality and identity of the people he takes photos of, particularly within marginalized communities. His photographs challenge stereotypes, which relates to my intent as I wish to capture multi-cultural teenagehood. For example, in his series, “Class Pictures,” he takes photos of teenagers from multiple cultures, wearing or holding something that represents their academic or personal interests. The focus on the eyes really emphasize the distinct traits of each person, and encourages the audience to note special features of each person. All of the photographs use techniques such as highlighting the person while blurring the background. This is because the author intends to focus on the character and traits of the character, but still wants to include a background that presents their academic status. However, the background is blurred so the audience can better focus on the subject. I chose him as inspiration because his photos distinctively represents the culture, the traits, and the teenagehood of his subjects. I hope to capture a similar effect. I will also try out different backgrounds that are blurred in my shoot, as it not only presents the academic side I aim to present in terms of nostalgia, but also helps supplement the clothing or props that put teachers back to their teenagehood.

Subject staring straight into the camera. Features clear and focused.

Staring straight into the camera, similar to the previous ones but presenting another culture. The earings, the background, the makeup, the jewelry, etc.

Similar to the previous 2. Wearing cheerleader uniform – academic/personal interests are presented.

In this specific photo, it is a very detailed example I want to reference. It shows the student in his seat, with a detailed but blurred background proving that he is in a school (the map behind him), the camera is clearly focused on his gaze, and his clothes are representative of his own identity. The focus on his gaze draws a tense but intriguing mood, as it makes him look very serious but still allows readers to examine him and notice things about his identity, both cultural and personal.

In the identity unit in photography, I would like to capture the student identity of teachers in my photos. Teachers were all once students, therefore I would like to revive their identities of being students in the form of multiple photos with them performing, holding, or doing something that they did when they were in high school. I aim to bring back a nostalgic feel as long with levels of contrast which is presented when the teachers (the most mature ones in a school) revert back to students (the most immature ones in a school).

This photo is what I have taken for inspiration. The adult is grown but recreating a scene that occurred in his childhood, bringing him nostalgia and giving the photo a contrasting feel.

This photo is another inspiration as it features an old lady putting on her graduation gown once again. Her facial emotions tells the audience that she enjoys the nostalgia of going back to dressing in a previous phase of her life. I wish to capture similar emotion.

Greg Davies

This is a humorous photo that attempts to bring nostalgia. The person dresses up as a baby and wishes to return to childhood. The nostalgic purpose is relevant and ideal, but the sets I will be taking will not be as humourous.

Adrienne Salinger brings

Her photos have the 1990s nostalgic feel as its aesthetic and include very interesting composition. The composition could be used for my set as it brings adults back to teenagehood. This inspires my set as I also hope to recreate teenage hood to bring nostalgia with interesting composition.

A portrait is something that highlights and captures the identity of a person in a visually appealing way.

This picture is the epitome of my definition. This portrait highlights the person’s identity and is visually appealing because of the possible emotions the clothing, the mask, and the surroundings evoke. This evokes a war-like emotion