Title "From Darkness"

The final five have been picked along with the title that will go with them. It's been an interesting experience working on this project, creating photographs from a custom made snow globe. The feedback I received from Peter, Sarah, Peggy, and the class helped me get the project to a point were its ready to be presented. I'm grateful for all the feedback I received from the critics, it helped me figure out what worked in the project as well as the direction I wanted to take it. In the end I believe the projected turned out really well and look forward to my next project.

Final Five

Approaching the End

Having taken many photographs some of which I've posted, its time to narrow down the images to the five that will be presented in a 20x30 print. The newer photographs don't give off the same sense of feeling I get with the older photographs. This means that I will be choosing the final five from the past photographs that made a better impression.

More Photographs

Outside Critic with Peggy

A week after the feed back from the group critic, I was able to meet with Peggy to get her feedback on the photographs that I have taken. She like the direction the project was going in, she also told me that I should take the photographs in a way that keeps the container out of the image. I was also advised to take more images with the use of different colors to see what kind of photograph is created. With her I was also advise to get the images print a bigger size, which is the same feedback I got from Peter. So rather then going with 10 images at a smaller size, I will now be printing 5 photographs that are 20x30. With this in mind I continued to take more images with the feedback in mind as well as trying to keep in mind that I'll have to pick 5 final photographs opposed to picking 10.

Photographs Taken with the Feedback in Mind

First Group Critic

From the first group critic, I was amazed by the different interpretations people came across from seeing the photographs I have created. From the feedback I got, I found that some of the things that worked in the images were how the light had been filtered in some images that didn't show too much and allowed for a sense of mystery in each image. I also found that the use of different colors for the background gave each photograph a different way to be interpreted. Some of the beneficial feedback that came from the critic was that I should only show the pose the model is in, without showing the container its in. I should also keep the water level out of the photograph because that takes away from the image. One last bit of critic was that I should not have too much light in the photograph that shows too much information of what is going on in the photograph. All of this feedback is information that I kept in mind as I went to work on the next batch of photographs for the project.

Experimental Photographs

Continued Experiment with the Photographic set up.

From the discussion with Peter, I continued to work with my second idea and played around with the settings with each image. With each image I changed the pose the model was in as well as how much light would show up in the photographs. I also changed the color in the background, at times trying to bring two different colors together in one image. One last thing that I tried out was changing the distance between the camera and the object, this would either show a closer image of the model or a far away distance from the model surrounded by more darkness. These experiments are what I showed to the class for the first group critic.

Working with the Idea of Trapped

Working with the idea of trap, I was trying to come up with images that could possible show the bodily actions of a person that has been trapped in a small area. From the images that I got(shown below), they were fitting their original purpose.I was able to see a in them the thought of one being trapped. When it came time to show them to Peter for the first critic, he brought to my attention that the images go behind the idea of being trapped. I had been so focused on the subject of trapped, that I hadn't taken the time to see what else was in the photographs. From that point on, I came to see that the photographs themselves inspired a different feeling depending on the perspective of a person.

Photographs

Change of Idea

Given that the first idea was giving me some trouble and was falling apart. I decided to work with my second idea that dealt with being trapped. The idea of being trapped occurred to me due to how snow globes are usually used to capture an area people are familiar with and what a small memento of.

Work In Progress

The two images above deal with the idea of creating a story around the use of a mask. While working with this idea I felt that it was difficult to come up with a story that will come across to the rest of the audience. I also ran into some problems when it came to creating the snow globes, the miniature figures would fall apart after a few hours in the water. 

Ideas to Build On

Some of the ideas that I came up with for the first critic with  Professor Winant  dealt with  creating snow globes that dealt with the idea of the original Brother Grimms story, the use of masks to tell a story, the idea of being trapped, and last the idea of time captured in a snow globe. From the critic the idea that was discussed to a greater length was the use of the masks to create a story. It was one of the ideas that I started with first and had taken a few pictures like the one above. 

The Beginning

For my senior project the idea that I had come up with, due in part to a past project, was to make use of snow globes. Its an idea that I had come up with when working on another project that involved to use of snow globes and capturing the silhouette that was created due to the background light. These silhouettes would then created a image of a world that was unique in how each person interpreted the image.