The first photograph was taken with us, 4 people including me, jumping around in different areas. I believe that the contrasting movement above and below the middle line increases the interest of the photograph. The top part of the photograph mainly shows our upper body moving, which doesn’t show a lot of movement. However, the bottom half of the photograph shows dynamic movement, showing a circular, or triangular shaped loop. The shutter speed of the camera was pretty slow, and I think that’s what made the photograph really capture the different movements in a quite clear way. However, I realized that we’re only able to see Emma, who wore a bright colored t-shirt. Next time, I would like to have people who’s wearing various types of bright colored clothes to take photographs together.

The second photograph shows the word, love. Each person was assigned to a specific alphabet, and tried to draw that alphabet in the air for a few seconds in order to capture the movement showing the alphabet. We made a few tries and as time went by, we were able to realized how the shutter speed matters a lot, and it decides how much it’ll show about the movement. I was trying to show the alphabet ‘V’ and I knew that constant, accurate movements leads to a higher clarity in the final photograph. Also, the alphabet ‘e’ was the most challenging one as it takes the longest to repeat the alphabet and at the same time, it requires more movements. Therefore, I was able to understand how minimum action leads to a clearer movement shown in the photograph. Next time, I’d like to try the same thing with another word, or using other tools such as paint or crayons instead of my hands to increase the engagement.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These three photograph’s were my set 1 photographs, titled “Whisper.” The photographs are in focus of teenagers life, and the stress, and the pressure, and everything that’s bothering out lives. I aimed to convey the message of the seriousness of the rapid increment of teenagers mental health issues due to the people surrounding us. These three photographs are all in perfect clarity, providing the opportunity for the viewers to feel high empathy with the girl’s emotions; her hollow eyesight, zero laughter, and the seriousness blended in her emotions. Many view adolescence as an innocent, joyful step of growing up, however, I wanted to show that the inner part of teenagers life isn’t like those crystal stairs full of luxurious, stable life, instead, it’s like a staircase that’s worn our due to the challenges we face.

The first photograph is a really closed-up shot, capturing all the emotional details given. The girl is staring at the camera without any smiles, somewhat looking really serious. The girl looking directly at the camera with the minimum extra space also makes the viewers think that she’s staring at herself, making the photograph more intense. The shutter speed of the camera was also really fast, so I was able to capture a clear moment. The photograph also shows how the left half of her face is covered with the dark light, and the right half is covered with hot pink color, showing symmetry. Sometimes, pink symbolizes positive aspects, for example, inner peace and comfort, or sometimes, innocence. It relates to how the right part of her face, the inner peace and the innocence of a young girl, faded away and became the left part of her face, close to black, which symbolizes sadness and seriousness. The light’s position of gradually getting darker greatly deepens the depth and mysterious mood of the photograph. Additionally, the dark background makes the subject stand out. Also, some may say that the seriousness shows the current situation as the girl is just looking straight ahead. Also, the eye level view point increases the feeling of empathy and realness as it’s the view point we actually view the world.

The second photo is a again a photo of a teenager, but this time, her face is covered with a skeleton’s skull, and the focus is on the skull, not the girl. There is quite a lot of blank, black spaces, which makes the main subject more isolated. The shutter speed of the camera was also really fast, making me able to freeze the subject in one position.This photograph makes the viewers question, “Why is the skull the main subject of the photograph?”, “What does the skeleton symbolize in the photograph?” The skeleton represents how teenagers are tired enough, or too much. In real life, skull represents a waring to a dangerous substance or object, or sometimes freedom and individuality. In the photograph, it represents warning towards society, warning to give freedom to the teenagers to live their own life, doing whatever they want. The girl holding the skull in front of her face, or covering her face, tells us how she also wants to hide from the harsh pressure and expectations. The bit of pinkish light seeking on the right part of the skull that gradually goes away as we go to the left part shows the sweetness of her childhood going away. In the second photograph, the position of the skull and the bit of light on it makes the viewers question about the purpose of the photograph.

The last photograph is the girl viewing the society with an eye-level point of view, which can also question the viewers, “What is the girl looking at? What is that so interesting on the left side?” Once again, I set up the camera to have a high shutter speed. The dark background with only having the girl staring at a random place increases the mysterious and curious mood. Some way interpret on the photograph by saying that the girl is looking back at the time when she was younger, the time when she was innocent, the time when everything she did was just hanging around and sleeping. Looking at the left, meaning the past, and looking at the right, meaning future; the girl is looking at the past. The view of the right is quite heavy while on the left, there’s a lot of black blank spaces, this contrast also makes the photograph more curious. The last photo is the closing mark of the photo set, eventually representing how teenagers these days are missing the past, missing the freedom, missing their smile.

I really liked how the photograph turned out as how I intended it to be; high clarity and the usage of darkness. As this was a set taken in the studio with color lighting, on my final set, I aim to convey the same message, but in a more natural way, without using those set-up lights given. Also, I would like to use more objects that can add on the meanings and interest of the photograph, for example the skull. I still want to focus on the high clarity and zooming in on the girl’s face to increase the empathy and depth, while also having some mysterious mood with the over all dark atmosphere. I would also like to try some new angles and compositions that could make the set more interesting as this set just as one point of view.