This time I made an additional set that contained my identity. Thus, I focused on written texts and books this time.

Identity Project Set 3 All Photos.      <- This is a link for all photos

Below is my red selection of four photographs, which are first, second, seventh, and tenth on the above link if you want to see in a better quality.

Artist Analysis:

On this set, I did not change my identity but change my subject when I took photos. That way, although I did not have to, I felt the need to find another artist to analyze. The photographer I found was Tom Teodosijev. His unique feature and way to take is photos was that he organized the objects in one space and and had portraits without people. That is the significant similarity that can be found in Teodosijev’s photos and mine. By taking photos that does not need people, he can emphasize his identity more clearly and can additionally attract the audience with objects that are sorted out of each other. Another aspect that I can notice from Tom Teodosijev is that he does not only present his photographs in one or three images(triptych). He generally presents a set of images (according to the vision and inspiration ppt there were eight images) and creates abstract beauty. I got inspired by Tom Teodosijev that I decided to work on this set without a person to express my identity and take photos of objects. Although it can not be considered as a perfect way to demonstrate my identity, I used photos of different written text, and I would plan to present the image with 4~5 images. When I observed Teodosijev’s photos of each image carefully, I also found out that objects that were in one rectangular storage contained objects that related with each other with the same topic. For example, one storage photo contains objects such as markers, pens, scissors, colored pencils, and even tape, which all can be related with the topic art. By sorting out the storage with equipments that related with each other, it did not create an unacceptable impression from the audience since they thought “Yeah, those stuffs should be there,” and continued viewing other storages. I also wanted to create the same effect, if possible, that Teodosijev created since it was very interesting to notice how he tended to show his own identity by organizing random objects into a box. I felt that I could do that action properly in terms with books, such as comparing two-language written bible at the same time or taking photos of a dictionary which is able to translate up to four different languages to demonstrate my unique identity: internationality.

Evaluation:

As stated above, my identity was originally international aspect of myself. Unlike Set 1 and Set 2, which I took photos of coins, this time I decided to take photos of written text. Out of ten images, I chose my best four photographs as my red selection since it applied strongly to me. The first image I took was a red placard to celebrate year 2023, the year of rabbit. When I observed the text written on the red card, I noticed that there was some international text that had a sense of humor. In the text, it stated that “NICE 兔 MEET U” which seemed to have an international aspect. The character 兔 means in Chinese, rabbit, and is spoken as tu in Chinese. That way, the text is actually “NICE TO MEET U,” but also explicitly state that it is the year of rabbit. I thought that it was a collaboration of both English and Chinese text, so it made it through the red selection. The second photo in my selection was my books. There were lots of books, but the text type was various. For example, there were some Korean dictionaries and some English novels when I looked at the tile of the books. Multifarious types of books that war written in diverse languages are a perfect way to show my international identity that I have been to many countries and fluent in handful languages. In the third photo, I took photos of two bibles. I am a sacred Christian, but some people could think that there are no relevant information that shows my identity. However, one is written in English, and one is written in Korean. I feel equally the same when I have to read some text in church. Similar with the second image, the third image also reminds me of my international identity that it is diverse. Lastly the fourth image I took have one more language added: Japanese. As a son of a diplomat, I was “nomadic” and moved countries over countries every year or two. That way, I naturally learned each countries’ cultural differences(also mastered a lot of languages) and adapted quickly.  I generally think that the fourth photograph is the image that portraits my identity the most. The subject in this photo is a multi-language dictionary. When I am, for example, reading a book, and does not know what the word meant, I search it up on that dictionary. This dictionary helped me a lot when I encountered hard words and boosted me up to have a strong vocabulary when I speak Korean, English, Chinese, or Japanese. Overall, the four images and the remaining photographs I took showed exactly what identity I have and expressed it properly.

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.

My Red Images(Photos):

Out of 10 images I took before/during the winter holiday, three photos were my best, red selection.  These photos best relates with my international identity project. The first photo is an enumeration of my coins that I collected around the world. As you can see above, there are a lot of layers consisting of wide range of coins. It also makes this photo more abstract since it is taken in various layers; the different shapes and sizes further emphasizes the international identity of myself. I could not find any photographers who similarly tried to take photos of objects, so I made a new genre of identity photos.  One of the main reasons that I chose this photo out of other ones was that this looked the most beautiful in terms of abstractness. Photographs that feature one’s identity are sometimes creepy and dark, which loses beauty. However, this photo luckily contained multiple floors to provide more attractiveness in the photograph and created good-looking aura. The second image I took was also containing three coins. However, this time I had a different topic than the first one. In this photograph, I intentionally took photos of the tail-side of the coin, which had various animals. For example, on the tail-side of the U.S. quarter($0.25), there was a picture of an eagle. I did some research and found out the fact that the bald eagle symbolize the supreme power and privilege to the citizens of U.S. That way, I recognized that some animals that were printed on coin could represent something significant in their country. Similarly,  in a Croatia coin, which uses Kuna as a currency, there was a fish in the 1Kuna coin. I found out that the fish is a symbol of Croatian monetary history. The third photo I took is very simple; it is just of mixture of coins I collected from the past. This is the most simple and direct photo that can describe my variety of international identity. There are different colors, shapes, and textures that creates abstract nature, like my first photo does. But the unique feature that differentiates the third photo with the first photo is that the coins are laid out as a whole and emphasizes the variety of coins there.

In below, there are my 10 photos

Artist Analysis

Task1

Artist Name: Jose Romussi

Jose Romussi’s message in the photographs is to express different parts in person’s face. What it means that every people are different and those also play with culture. Since my main focus is about my international identity, I can similarly use those techniques to express that every cultures are different. His style is very interesting; peoples’ faces are replaced by colored strings, and some face have horns instead. It is also notable to found out his photos of the people are in black and white, but only their faces are colored. I think what he meant for the audience is to make them focus on colored part, since it is the most important part. Although it could be hard, I would try to use lights to increase/decrease the focus of a subject. These images inspire me because Romussi was the only photographer I could find that dealt with culture.  That way I could see some example regarding with my identity and take photos like him. Cultures are difficult to put those in photographs, and I think Romussi did a great job in expressing those. The content of his photograph would lead me to a correct path to cultures and differences. The photos below are 5 photos that are very similar in content, but it inspires me. As you can see from this photograph, Romussi emphasizes the subject’s musical identity; expressing those with musical notes and words. Although other pictures can seem to be difficult to show identities, I can apply my international identity while using the techniques Romussi uses on face. That way, I can directly show “Me” myself and “Identity” in a photograph, which gives the audience better understanding of my photograph, just like Romussi does.

Task 2- Critique of Images.

The best image of Jose Romussi:

Although the title is undetectable this is my favorite image of Jose Romussi. The main reason why this photograph inspires me is because it describes about the subject’s identity. The subject in this photograph is a male person, with colorful shapes and words included in this image.  What is interesting in this photograph is that it does not look like a photograph. It just looks like a drawing. Romussi states that it is a collage, but although it is closer to the concept of drawing, I want to apply with the techniques and use it when I take photographs. What is noticeable in this image is the black&white color of the subject(person), which controls the light and shadow, and colorful texts and images with a variety of colors. That way, audience can focus on the subject’s identity and creates the mood to wander about the subject’s own identity. The colorful things describe his identity and passion about music; as you can see from this image, there are things like “MUZIK” ,”SING”, and beat drawings in this photograph. That way, I could know that the subject likes music. The setting in this image is undetectable since it only focuses on the identity. Although it could be hard to enable those artistic choices that Romussi did, I will try to make a similar mood to have a clear intention for the audience to feel amused by a lot of cultural identity I have.

Mood Board

(My Mind Map for Part 2 and Mood Board for Part 5 is in the same link)

https://app.popplet.com/#/p/7263890

Statement of Intent

The title of this project is “Parts”. The reason is that my topic is about the world. I wanted to emphasize the different parts of each different countries and there are a lot of cultures to explore. For example, the money each countries use can be different, and the location of the car steering wheel can also differ. I have went to many different countries and found those differences very interesting to me. The cultural issue I want to explore with my photographs is to eliminate all of the cultural discrimination which is happening widely throughout the world. Some people think that some cultures are superior to others and some countries are better than others just because of their wealth and population. I can express that discrimination by controlling light usage, where some cultures get tons of spotlight whereas others are gradually disappearing. I want my audience to feel two important aspects of my photograph: One, variety of cultures, and Two, the discrimination and prejudice towards specific culture. That way, they can have judicial mindset toward all cultures and respect it. I will get inspiration and develop my ideas by looking for photographs that are internationally touching, and, as stated above, variety of cultures to provide new, fresh features.

app.popplet.com/#/p/7263890

The above link is my mind map

Focus +Image Inspiration:

I want to focus on International, cultural difference around the World. Since I am a diplomat’s son, I have experienced many cultures while going to a lot of countries, and learned that we have to accept those cultures. However, some people think that some cultures are superior than others and treat different races differently. This is cultural discrimination and should not happen. That way, I want to emphasize that every cultures are important and in those cultures we can found out variety of objects that I can take photos of. There are lot of elements to express when I take photos: I can shed light to cultures that look superior, and make other cultures that are negatively viewed dark. Although the topic is different, I want to use photographer Edward Weston’s way of taking photos that is usually black and white to create more focus and make the subject more beautiful. That way, I can easily take photos that can show variety of things that differ because of cultures.

The image I want to focus on is the Color of each countries and cultures. I think the color is the most important when people think of one country or culture. For example, in China, it is red, and in U.S. it is blue.