Independent Project

My project explores the relationship between text and the image (the written language and the visual language). Mainly, my project explores how we visually read text and how lighting, font and framing effects our reading. At the same time, the type of text, or font, totally changes our reading.

My first picture is a good example of how different types of text are read differently. The commercial text of Orlando Sentinel has such a firm placement, completely vertical in the composition and organized. On the other hand, the graffiti text along the Orlando Sentinel moves diagonally and appears more chaotic. Likewise, the graffiti text appears small next to the Orlando Sentinel and has a personal feel unlike the commercial text.

The second picture is a nice experiment with light and how lighting can totally change an image. For this picture, I put a newspaper over a window as the sunlight went through the newspaper. As a result, the newspaper has a transparent quality which allows for the text on the back to seep into the front. This transparency creates a chaotic feeling in which text overlaps other text and the viewer becomes oversaturated with all the information. This kind of portrayal connects with the subject matter of the newspaper in which people are flooded with news all the time. I feel the newspaper text helps enforce this connection.

The last picture is my personal favorite due to its subtlety. The picture is of an abandoned train in downtown. Yet, without me stating this, the viewer can at least tell the object is old due to the dust. What I like about the picture is the ghostly words written on the dust and the elegant motion of how they move along the train, fading away at times. The overcast lighting adds to this ghostly feeling that is created.

Beyond these three pictures, I wanted to create unity through design choices. The addition of red in all the pictures helped make the picture unite as a single series. I also sequence the pictures to move from warm colors to cool colors. The three pictures I chose have the same transition with the bright red of the first to the cool tones of the third picture.