Final Group of Photos

The photographs in my series attempt to portray the human presence within apparently deserted spaces scattered with banal objects. The items are generally set askew and a certain emptiness in the frame calls for a human to be present. The crookedness of the picture frames on a stairway wall reference a person hitting up against the wall while ascending up the stairs.

Adding to this feeling is the domestic setting in the photographs. Within each scene, there is a biographical component suggesting the into the private life of whomever inhabits this space. The hanging of a shirt, the thrown bathroom towels and an unkept iron are regular routines performed alone in the home. The solidarity of some of the objects and quietude within seems to refer to a single human occupying the domestic setting.

Building to the mystery of the isolated scenes is the use of theatrical and unnatural lighting which refers to film. A narrative is created in which the movement of the implied person is tracked along the home. The lighting furthermore makes the simple and mundane appear paranormal with red or blue lights emanating from the objects themselves. These simple tasks are elevated in significance and represent the person.

Work-in-Progress 4

In this batch of photos, I wanted to further explore the power of lighting and generate a more unusual look. The strong blues and reds adds a paranormal feel to the photographs. I also decided to experiment with sizing by cropping the photos to fit a 17x22 sheet of paper which I find to illustrate the narrative quality more successfully. I will continue to experiment with the color fluorescent lighting. Even though the first image seems awkward with the other images, I wanted to try scenes in which objects are missing, leaving a surrounding border. Out of the current images, I feel the last two are the strongest and get to the human presence the best.

Quiz 3

My series was most influenced by the photographs from chapter 2 "Once upon a time" and chapter 4 "Something about nothing". The first chapter talks about the connection between film and photography and the narrative quality that photographs tend to exhibit. These narrative range from overt storytelling to more subtle narratives. The second chapter focuses about photographs without people and how we the viewer experience these photographs. The lack of humans causes us to look at objects that is often left ignored and the viewer sees the world in a different perspective.

Christopher Stewart's photograph on the top reference cinema with the lighting of the room and the posture of the man. What surprising about the photograph is the unstaged component of the scene. Stewart's cinematic touch in his lighting and the way the composition alludes to to past films is interesting. I was influenced by the simple compositions of Stewart and the way the everyday lighting can have different meaning in the photograph. The lamp in the photo has a completely cinematic quality.

Laura Letinsky's phtograph in the bottom takes inanimate objects and adds a human quality to the objects. Her series of food in between meals draws attention to a moment of time that most do not notice. The tossed objects and unorganized objects shows action in which we can imagine someone tossing the fork or napkin after finishing their food. This way of portraying objects influence my own series in which I attempt to do the same thing but with domestic objects in general.