Month: December 2025

1. 1. Young girl in a red hood (top left):This photo features a girl with striking green eyes, wrapped in a deep red hooded garment against a muted green background. Her intense, direct gaze conveys quiet resolve, while the rich red fabric anchors the image echoing Steve McCurry’s use of bold color to highlight personal identity and cultural clothing.
   2. Women in a green-walled room (top right):Set in a space with faded turquoise walls, this scene shows women engaged in daily life: one sews at a machine, others stand nearby, with a figure visible through a distant doorway. The soft, worn colors and calm interactions capture the quiet rhythm of community and routine.
   3. Portrait with sunbeams (left middle):A moody, artistic portrait where dramatic light beams fan across the subject’s face, casting sharp shadows. The high-contrast lighting adds depth and mystery, framing the image as a stylized exploration of identity (tied to creative portrait photography ideas).
   4. Flower seller in a boat (right middle):A vendor tends to vibrant, multicolored blooms piled high in a small boat, floating on dark green water. The bright flowers pop against the muted surroundings, blending everyday work with natural beauty.
   5. Man on blue steps (bottom right, upper):An older man in traditional white clothing and a colorful turban sits relaxed on bright blue stairs, with a bare foot visible nearby. The bold blue background emphasizes his cultural dress, creating a vivid, peaceful snapshot of daily life.
   6. Elderly man with a long beard (bottom left):This close-up portrait shows an older man with a thick, white beard, holding a thin stick near his mouth. His weathered features and intense gaze tell a story of lived experience, leaning into portrait photography’s focus on capturing personal history.
   7. Fishermen in choppy waters (bottom right):Several men fish in rough, blue waves, some balancing on poles, others wading. The dynamic scene (wild water, active figures) highlights the physicality and resilience of their daily work, set against a dramatic, cloudy sky.

   

My project is inspired by photographers and photography styles that use color in a meaningful way to communicate emotion, identity, and culture. One major inspiration is Steve McCurry, who is known for using strong, rich colors to tell human stories. His photographs often use color to highlight emotion and cultural identity, showing how color can make a subject feel powerful or vulnerable.

Another inspiration is William Eggleston, a photographer famous for using everyday scenes with bold, unusual color choices. His work shows that color alone can change how we view ordinary moments, making them feel important or symbolic. This inspires me to use color intentionally, even in simple settings, to suggest deeper meaning.

I am also inspired by portrait photography as a genre, especially portraits that focus on clothing, backgrounds, or lighting to emphasize certain colors. This genre helps me explore how color can represent personality, mood, and social identity. Looking at these photographers and styles has helped me understand that color is not just decorative but a tool to communicate ideas, which has directly influenced how I plan to compose and edit my photographs.

The societal and cultural issue I want to explore through my photographs is how color represents identity, emotion, and how people are viewed in society. Color is more than just something we see; it carries meaning, stereotypes, and feelings that can influence the way people are understood and treated. Different colors are often connected to certain emotions, moods, or social ideas, and these associations shape how individuals express themselves and how others judge them.

For example, bright colors like red, yellow, or orange are often seen as bold, confident, or loud, while darker colors like black, gray, or navy can be associated with seriousness, sadness, or power. In society, people are sometimes expected to dress or present themselves using certain colors to “fit in,” and when they don’t, they may be judged or misunderstood. Through my photographs, I want to show how color can both express individuality and reflect social pressure.

I also want to explore how color can represent cultural identity. Many cultures use specific colors in clothing, celebrations, and traditions to symbolize values such as pride, mourning, happiness, or strength. By focusing on color, my photographs can show how culture and identity are visually communicated without words. Overall, my goal is to use color as a visual language to explore how society connects meaning to appearance and how that affects personal and cultural identity.