In this set, I used the studio in school in order to emphasize my identity. Josh Ding agreed to be my model when taking the photographs, so I made a triptych from the photos that I took from he studio.

Identity Project Set 2Identity Project Set 2(All Photos)

 

My Red Images:

 

 

Artist Analysis: Harry Houdini

I was inspired by the artist Harry Houdini while I was taking photos in this set. Harry Houdini is known famously for his tricks as he was both magician and a photographer. That way, when I observed his photographs, I noticed his body was covered in metal handcuffs which were hardly locked, maybe to express his magician identity. He was the subject of his photos, and used black & white background to provide emphasis on himself. That way, it gave me an inspiration to insert my identity on to subject’s body and directly describe it as my identity. Another feature that was notable from Harry Houdini was that he had many poses when taking photos. What I mean by that is Houdini tried out many poses to make a perfect posture and settings for the best photos he could use to express his identity. The image I was most inspired from Harry Houdini was the Image below. When you compare the image below of Harry Houdini and my photographs, I can observe that those to have unusual items stuck on a piece of clothing. In the image, below, although it is difficult to fully comprehend what the object is, it seems like to be badges earned as a magician and specially represents his own identity. That way, I tried to portrait my identity by taking photos that were similar to Houdini’s photos.

 

Evaluation of my Studio Work:

The most direct aspect that can be found in my photograph is the use of various coins. In the middle image, there are coins top of one’s hand, and on the side images, there is Josh wearing a mask that have coins taped there. This demonstrates my international identity through these coins. I wanted to express that these identity follow me where ever I go, so I embedded coins on important items such as hands and mask. My identity only have one particular aspect and that is international one. I thought that the best way to express variety of culture was to use different currency of each country. That way, I could find different shapes and colors of coins and could make the photograph look more abstract. The reason I used black background while I took photos was to emphasize that white mask more focused to the audience and again feature my identity. I also utilized the light while I took the photos in order to reflect light of the coin to make the coin more bright. My model Josh had tried various posture to locate the mask on various locations; and I thought that placing the mask on the higher part would make the triptych more beautiful. The photo of Josh’s hand was to also emphasize my identity; it is rather very obvious. I could have just used three photos of the coin mask to make a beautiful triptych, which could be have the same topic as the examples that I saw. However, I inserted the photo of hand on the middle of the triptych so that way I could interest the audience with a new perception, rather than three repetitive images which can make them somewhat boring. I thought that inserting a photo of hand with coins on top of it could both stay on topic and keep intrigue the audience.