Because I intended to explore the theme of human complexity through photography, capturing moments where different layers of identity are revealed—moments that show the duality of human nature, this selection of photographs has demonstrated my intent. Each one of the photographs, besides the middle one, shows the reflection of something or someone that was only in the mirror. This demonstrates the complexity of human nature and a common social phenomenon – like the photographs, people nowadays often hide their true selves behind their masks, behind their covers. I hide my true self underneath the surface. The mirror and the reflections within it represent that true inner self: “A glance in the sky” – the ground within the clouds, “A glance of death” – the skeleton within a normal room, “Revealing the nature” – a plant within a hallway, “Hallowed” – an empty space/vessel within crowed legos, “Loved” – crowed legos within an empty room, “Standing alone” – beautiful flowers within a normal wall, “Darkness” – unknown self within a dark surrounding, and “Warrior” – armor within a hall. Lastly, “Our true form” – you are within yourself. What I just said might sound confusing, but I meant to say that each photograph has either a conflicting or a non-related trait; the reflection and the surroundings are never the same. The photograph in the middle represents our inner self, touching our outer self, our true form, and our fake mask – we all live two lives. As explained in the “contact sheet” blog post, I’ve learned a lot during the photography course, and I’ve tried my best to include what I’ve learned in this final unit. I used shapes, contrasts, focus, lines, centering, working around the scene…etc. For this project, I’ve been longing to do something similar for a long time – therefore, I already had a vision of what I would do before this unit started. So, after the unit started, I quickly developed my original idea and reached this one. To build on my original idea, I researched different styles and types of identity photography, different artists of identity photography, and different photography methods. Then, I used the mind map and mood board to come up with the final decision of what I would do – mirrors.

For displacement, the photographs need to be in exactly this order, if possible, which I don’t think will be; the size of each individual photograph should be A5 paper.

For a long time, maybe even now, I’ve worn a mask, a cover that hides the true me. Therefore, this presentation represents what I’ve been dealing with for an extended period. It represents who “I” am and how I sometimes could look one way but, deep inside, an entirely different way. The presentation style was suggested by Miranda Poh, who feels it would be interesting for me to try a 3-column & 3-row presentation. Then I tried it, and it fit perfectly.

 

In this presentation, the subject, the photograph in the center, was supported by the 8 surrounding photographs via their similar theme and same technique – mirror. The presentation’s focus would be pretty much scattered – however, that was intended. When the audience looks at the photographs, wherever they look first, they will all get the message of inner reflection and look at the center, which is what I intend the audience to do. However, the audience could also be confused if they failed to understand what I am trying to communicate here – and that failure might be because of the abstract representation of the photographs, as the interpretations were only meant to represent my own opinions.