Here are the photos I took during our 798 field trip:
The contact sheet below includes all my “yellow” photographs. I chose these pictures because I feel they best express Uta Barth as my inspiration for my triptych as they use her out-of-focus technique and follow similar composition in capturing a scene. For example, I chose photos similar to those I used in my artist gallery as they captured a particular area with a coherent colour scheme. I also took photos of areas I thought felt comforting or homey, as that is the emotion I receive from the majority of Barth’s work. I had many photographs of the same subject so I decided to only select one or two of those images. In order to create similar effects to Barth, I used manual focus, resulting in some of the pictures being not as nice as I intended.
Below are my “green” photos, which were selected from the “yellow photos.” I selected these images because they best relate to my vision of creating personal images highlighting life’s simplicity that the audience can connect to. Following this vision, I took photos of architecture, scenes, and objects that people often see in their lives, such as a door, bleachers, and chairs leaning against a table.
Finally, below are my three “red” images, chosen from the “green” ones to reveal three that best communicate my chosen message and relate to Uta Barth. Out of the three, the image I would like the highlight is the centre photo, file IMG_3882. This image is similar to one of Barth’s photos that I evaluated in the blog post Sets 1: Artist Selection because of its colour scheme and the idea of capturing an ordinary object. For Barth, it was a blank teal wall with old photos in it. Her composition and framing aren’t anything unordinary too – with slivers of her bedside cabinet in the frame. In my photo, we can also see the shot of almost nothing, the isolation of the door slowly pulling the audience in as well as parts of other buildings in the frame. However, the use of dark, cool tones creates a sense of loneliness and lack of contact with people. I think this image connects to Uta Barth’s work through Barth’s message to challenge one’s privilege to see and appreciate the world around them by creating a perspective into how one’s environment can reflect their life – how this door can reflect the owner’s life. For example, the rust on the door makes it seem as if it hasn’t been touched in years, or the owner could not bother to replace or fix it. It adds a story to the picture, creating a narrative and allowing the audience to pause and take in the image.
In the future, if I were to do this task again, I would like to capture more individual objects, like this door or these empty bleachers. I would also like to capture more images that create feelings of abandonment or isolation, photos that could be full of life but lack the people to create that energy. I would also like to select a series of photographs that I can use as direct inspiration, instead of their general style of images. This way my photos can better connect to my chosen artist and their message.