Final Images

Autumn&Beau

Composition: in this image, the focus was on the two figures facial expressions, and how they interacted with each other. the bottom image is showing how their feet interact with each other.

Method: i used a desk light and flash to take this photo. since it was night and indoor, the light source was not enough to get a good exposure. So I used flash and also a faster shutter speed to catch the moment.

Concept: couple.  their shoes definitely reveal something about their personality. Autumn is very easy-going and Beau loves outdoor activities. They love each other very much.

Motivation: to capture a daily life moment.

Context: marriage.

Erica&Converse

Composition: i chose to use the easiest composition in these two images, placing the subjects in the center of the picture.

Method: I shot this photo indoor with a desk light covered with white cloth and a baking sheet on the other side of the subject's face to get some reflection.

Concept: Simplicity is the theme of this photo. High school senior with a pair of converse, and a sweet smile. Very simple and very natural.

Motivation: just to create a feeling of simplicity.

Context: high school life.

Jeff&bare feet

Composition: as the theme of this series of photos, it is a gain emphasize on the subjects face and the feet.

Method: desk light and flash. fast shutter speed

Concept: showing the emotion and the life of the person. Jeff is in the MSU break dance club. As a dancer, he uses a lot motions of his feet to practice.
Motivation: showing ones mood and hobby.
Context: super senior. college. after college. transition.

Kim&Converses + High heels

Composition: in the bottom image, I asked the model to get all her shoes out, creating a chaotic feeling.

Method: indoor light, flash, fast shutter speed.

Concept: also showing a person's life and personality. Kim was on her way to the KCF banquet and she's wearing her high heels. But when asked about her favorite shoes, she took out a whole collection of her converse shoes.

Motivation: telling a story about someone.

Context: collections of shoes.

Joy&Snow

Composition: the figure and the feet in the center of the images.

Method: desk light, flash, fast shutter speed.

Concept: personality. Joy is a very joyful person but she has her sensitive side.

Motivation: capture a different side of somebody.

context: faith and life.

Blog Prompts#25

Write a detailed description of your “motivations” for your final self-proposed project. 

Why are you interested in this subject? 
My project is to portrait people as well as there shoes. It is a interesting way to displaying a person's life and his/her personality. Shoes may tell a whole different story about a person from what people usually see on the faces. Also, shoes are important on our life journey, since they take us everywhere we are planning to go.  Some of shoes have traveled thousands of hundreds of miles with us at different places in the world. Shoes can tell a lot of stories.

What do you want to convey? 
The information I want to convey in my photos is about people and their life. I am always interested in people's personal stories. It is a privilege to hear things happened in another person's life. Since we are all different from each other and we all have different experience in our lives, but when we found similarities in others life, we feel connected to them as well as the rest of the world.

How do you want viewers to respond? 
Like I said in the previous section, I would like to let my viewers to see the difference among various groups of people but at the same time they will be able to feel connected to one of them. I hope they see the difference and the similarity and also I hope they will find it interesting to really pay attention to others' shoes, and take them as a part of their personality and personal history/profile.

Why are you inspired to make these images/this project? 
The inspiration was from photographer John Huck and his photo series Breakfast. He spent years to record different breakfast from different people in different ethnic groups, different age groups, and different social background groups. So I want to document the similar detail in people's life and reveal the subtle stories about them.

Do you want to evoke emotions in viewers? Shock viewers? Make them laugh? Make them think? Inform them? Reveal something about how you see the world? Reveal something about yourself, a person, a place, a feeling, a memory, a moment in time? 
I want to make my viewers smile, and remind them of some subtle/little things in their life but they ignore them.

Final Project Ideas

 

Assignment#5(final images)

'Constructed Still Life'

Composition: in this image, I chose to put the focus on the paper text to emphasize the main idea of the work. The little person in the background is blur but echos the text in the image.

Concept: the idea of this photo is totally about constructing an object to be photographed.

Motivation: I love paper work and enjoyed cutting things out of a piece of flat paper and add some dimensions to it.

Method: very large aperture to achieve the small depth of field; set up light source from the back of the paper in order to get the blurry glowing illusion of the little paper man.

Context: Self-seeking&emptiness and relationships among people.

Part2 Critique:
the edge of the paper in the bottom right corner seemed distracting to some of my classmates. But I left it there to suggest that the media was made of paper.
maybe for jump-off point i could do a series of this theme.

'Constructed Performance for the Camera'+'Constructed Identity'

Composition: the model and her dress, accessories created a short of chaos in this image. But i leave the background blank in order to emphasize the information from the subject. 

Method: flash light, soft light source from bottom right (with white cloth), fast shutter speed.

Concept: this image is about performance since nobody would wear Chi-pao and bring a fan to a football game.

Motivation: to play with different elements in daily life.

Context: this related to different identities we play in our life. People are becoming more and more universal and global. We embrace, appreciate and enjoy different cultures.

Part2 Critique
the subject looks confused, maybe change the foam hand to her right hand. the clear background works pretty well.

Constructed Social/Cultural Statement

Composition: the figure in the background is actually the focus, especially her facial expression and her dress. the foreground (Christmas tree and candy canes) is out of focus and helps create a sense of depth in this image.

Method: large aperture, direct light source, and flash light.

Concept: the constructed culture of an American girl in a traditional Chinese dress decorating Christmas tree.

Motivation: combine different culture elements in this photo.

Context: globalization.

Part2 Critique
maybe add other elements from different cultures in this image, suggested using body language.

 

'Subtle Construction+Miniature Staged Life'

Composition: i placed the dolphin in a bowl of goldfish. trying to show the repeated pattern but there was one thing different

Method: close-up, large aperture, desk light

Concept: staged life. trying to play around with the different things with similarity.

Motivation: use limited resource in my kitchen.

Concept: identity, or individualism and collectivism.

Part2 Critique

the concept is interesting, add more contrast; need to change the composition, left bottom corner doesn't work very well, or try to make the position of the dolphin differently, such as its head stick out of a pile of goldfish; jump-off point: dolphin's journey. traveling diary.

Assignment#5(0)

Blog Prompts#24

Pick two images from any of the “constructed reality” photographers presented in class or linked on the assignment sheet. Describe how you could recreate these two images on a “smaller scale”.
1. i really liked the image with the flowers inside the room and a woman was sitting in the "indoor" garden. I think i could make it smaller since i can't find enough flower at this point. i may just use my stuff animal as the main subject, and then i will try to find some flowers from stores to create a mini green house.
2. in the class, the most interesting idea was actually from the coldplay video. I would love to try do something like that but in a smaller scale. i can do paper crafts with drawing and make a mini stage for my photos.

Describe your plans for your self-proposed final project (if the plan is the same as before, paste it here again and give a bit more detail). During the final critique for Assignment #5, you will discuss/present these ideas to the class.
I would like to do a project of food, and handcrafts and other media with my photo series. I wanna to make it a series of portraits and food and make it a  invented narrative series about different lifestyles. That is I want to use the food/handcrafts or the other media to reveal personalities. Getting food materials may be challenging sometimes, so I have another idea, shooting people's shoes or personal items that really speak for their identity....

"Fading Away" by Henry Peach Robinson & "Candy Cigrattes" by Sally Mann

English photographer Henry Peach Robinson or H.P. Robinson (1830-1901) was a pioneer of 'Pictorialist Photography,' especially 'Combination Printing.' Pictorialists believed that 'Art Photography' needed to emulate the paintings of everyday life in such a way to etch it in time and remove from it the mundane of the photograph. Among the methods used for the same were soft focus, special filters, lens coatings, heavy manipulation in the darkroom, and exotic printing processes. These processes together gave an eerie and an unreal feeling of being etched in space and time to the fluid and everyday 'Modern Photography.' Henry Robinson was called "the King of photographic picture making," proving the pinnacle of his competence as a photographer. His "Fading Away" is an all time stunner.

Perhaps the most famous of his pictures is Fading Away (1858), a composition of five negatives, in which he depicts a girl dying of consumption (which we know as tuberculosis), and the despair of the other members of the family. This was a controversial photograph, and some felt that the subject was not suitable for photography. One critic said that Robinson had cashed in on "the most painful sentiments which it is the lot of human beings to experience." It would seem that it was perfectly in order for painters to paint pictures on such themes, but not for photographers to do so. However, the picture captured the imagination of Prince Albert, who bought a copy and issued an order for every composite portrait Robinson produced subsequently.

Fading Away is a composition of five negatives. If one examines a large copy of a print closely one can see the "joins", particularly the triangle of gray with no detail in it. One has to remember, of course, that these were contact prints - there were no means of enlarging at that time.

It is clear that many who admired "Fading Away" had no idea that it was a combination print and when, in 1860, Robinson outlined his methods at a meeting of the Photographic Society of Scotland, he was greeted with howls of protest from people who seemed to feel that they had been deceived. 

"Candy Cigarette" by Sally Mann

Sally Mann has used her 8 x 10 view camera to capture in fine detail, among other subjects, images of her children as they mimic and act out social and familial roles in the lush landscape of their rural Virginia home. For the series Immediate Family posed or simply arrested in their activity, Mann's children, who often appear nude, convey both primal and playful aspects of human behavior. The images in the series and subsequent publication At Twelve: Portraits of Young Women (1988) capture the confusing emotions and developing identities of adolescent girls. Candy Cigarette is a striking example of Mann's distinctive combination of careful planning and serendipity. In this work Mann's daughter Jessie suspends her activity and gracefully balances a candy cigarette in her hand, the innocent miniature of a blonde and gangling twenty-something beauty. Mann’s expressive printing style lends a dramatic and brooding mood to all of her images.