One Hand washes the Other

Beauty is Only Skin Deep

You Catch more flies With Honey than Vinegar

If God had meant Us to Fly, He'd have Given Us Wings

Keep Smiling, It Makes Everyone WOnder What You've Been Up To

Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder

Don't Put All Your Eggs in One Basket

Attack is the Best Form of Defense

An Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

Oil & Water Don't Mix

Promt 25

From the beginning, although I had many ideas, this one was the most forceful. I wanted to take sayings that are common and translate them into images. My motivation behind this was the success of a photo from my last assignment, the "see no evil" portrait. I wanted to do all of the sayings in portrait style. Although there is one that does not show a face, it has a part of the body pictured and so I still consider it a type of portrait.
I wanted to convey the essence of the sayings, I want the viewer to look at the photos and be able to relate them to a specific quote.For some of the shots, my hope is to have viewers respond with emotion. I want them to look at the pieces and wonder what the message is. Then I want them to be able to see the words translated into a photograph. I suppose I do want to reveal something about myself to the viewer. Whatever it is is fine. I think that is part of the reason that I chose to use myself as a subject for the entirety of this series. I want them to see all the different sides that can make up a single person.

Final Project Ideas

An apple a day keeps the doctor away...

Attack is the best form of defense...



Beauty is only skin deep...


I want to expand on the idea that I had for the previous assignment and collect different sayings that are common to most people. Then I want to try to translate them into photos. I have not really thought much about the presentation although I think I might like to put together a book in which the sayings appear in a different area than the picture and the viewer has to match the saying with the picture. Unfortunately I do not have a lot of friends who have time and are willing to be photographed so please, forgive the many shots of myself.

Prompt 23

In what ways do you "construct" your identity? In what ways do you "perform" in your daily life?

I construct my identity by wearing make-up, the clothes that I chose, the accessories that I wear and even the way that I style my hair. It can be different depending on my mood or what aspect of my personality I want to be more prominent that day. I perform by adjusting certain aspects of my personality depending on where and who I am around. For example I don't speak the same with my teachers and friends.

Describe some ways in which your physical space is "constructed".

Well, even just by hanging pictures or painting walls you are constructing a space. The classrooms that we all see and interact with are "staged" to look like and function as a classroom. This concept can be used in all areas, they are staged to make something what it is.

Describe some ways in which your personal culture and social environments are "constructed".

Videos, advertisements, tv programs, magazines, all these things affect the way that people view themselves and "constructs" the identity of the viewer. Since people, especially young people, emulate what they see and hear, the media is a strong tool in helping to "construct" identity and social environments.

I wouldn't mind creating one that displayed a myth. I really like the stories about the gods and such so I would love to create on based on something like that. I can picture Narcissus looking into the still pond in one shot, then slowly starting to change into a flower.

A war! I would make a war. I could get a lot of little toy soldiers and deform them by melting them and cutting of arms, legs or heads to convey the destruction of war.

Prompt 22

For creating a series I would try to pick something to photograph that would be able to be shot in sets so that one part could be taken and the others could follow in a natural sequence. You could also envision and start from the end and go back to the beginning of the sequence instead of going from the first image to the last.

For the last project I think that I would like to expand one of the projects from before. I really enjoyed the photo booth pictures that I took and wonder what it would be like if I continued a series on that. I also like the mask concept of the most recent assignment and so I would like to expand that one too and show different "masks" of the people I am around daily.

Final Images for Assignment 5

In this shot I wanted to create an illusion based on something that we all knew and were familiar with so I chose the "speak no evil, hear no evil, see no evil" theme. I popped the contrast to create a more surreal feeling and I think that it worked out well. I used direct light and side lighting to help make the movement more visible. I also cropped this image to only include the face and arms so that the viewer would not be distracted by anything else in the picture. I didn't really have another artist in mind when I started this series, just pictured the little monkey statues. I wanted to take an image that we are used to seeing as a cartoon or as a 3D object and translate it into a photograph.

This photo was interpreted the way that I wanted it to be. People thought that is was a bit odd and I wanted to portray that feeling of uneasiness. The lighting works really good for this shot, in addition the contrast was good for portraying the feeling that I wanted to get across.



For this photo I wanted to depict the change/transformation that one goes through when they put on make-up. I was thinking of the make-up more like a mask and when we wear masks, since no one sees our real faces, we tend to exaggerate parts of our personalities. This series is going from the "fake" personality to the "real" personality. I used direct lighting, overhead and surrounding to try to create a softer look for this series. I also wanted to to re-shot this and try it from various other angles but I ended up really liking these shots. I didn't have any other artist in mind, but I used the idea of looking into the camera as if it were a mirror which Angela Strassheim used in her series of photos in which she depicted her family in various aspects of everyday life.

For this photo people thought that I should perhaps add a scene showing the makeup being put on. The lighting and contrast works well in addition to the camera angle. I would like ti re-shot this and try more frames as well as more angles.


For this image I wanted to convey a sense of perspective that felt like you were looking down from atop. I also wanted to play with the way that you viewed it, I wanted you to be able to see the back clearly and have the front be blurred so that it would feel like you were looking through it and down on it.

This image got a lot of positive feedback. It was hard to tell what it really was which worked because it was for the illusion prompt. The lighting was good and most people enjoyed the contrast and the unfocused section of the photograph. For a project I could use everyday items and try to make them seem to be different objects.

In this one I wanted to comment on the suicide rate of teenagers. I had a lot of different shots from all different angles and in the end I felt that this shot, which omits most of the figure, was the most effective. I used side lighting to create a strong shadow under the foot and on the wall behind the chair. I also wanted to create a strong shadow and create a sense of "weight" that would convey the hanging aspect that I wanted to convey.

Most people thought that this one was a little freaky, which I guess is what I intended? I did want it to be a commentary on suicide so I guess it does work. They also said that it could be used for illusion because the foot could be seen as real and from the crop seems to be in portion with the chair. I'm glad that I re-shot this one. By doing so I was able to get the shadow to be darker without the use of photoshop which pleased me. I was also able to focus more clearly on the single foot which I thought created a bigger impact than some of my other shots.

in Progress

recreation 4

common aesthetics

For newspapers I would have to say that a lot of action shots are used, especially in the sports section. They tend to use shots that convey a personal matter of the subject to the reader. Close-ups are often used to help convey feelings and emotions to the people who are reading. Which, in a way is common with snapshots except for them, most people tend to take close-ups of faces. That's what they seem to want to remember, the emotion on the faces of the people they are close to. In advertisements, it seems that they are rather detached, trying to sale a clean cut image of the product or service. In fashion photography often I notice that the theme seems to be to sale a fantasy of what if and maybe to the viewer. You want them to fall in love with the photo and then the product advertised. Yearbook pictures are really boring to me. They seem to portray the cookie cutter image of sweet little girls and boys who are the apple of their parents eyes. I always hated taking those. Standard background, standard pose, standard shot. Senior pictures are more personal for the student in that they are able to bring in elements that are a part of them, do different poses, wear different clothes that represent their personality rather than their school or grade etc.

images for final critique

should it or not

I don't think that there is anything that cannot be photographed. At least not since I have been thinking about this prompt. I feel that all things can be photographed however, I do feel that there are ways in which to photograph certain things. For instance, I do think that one should be tasteful when taking shots of intimate things. I don't like to take pictures for the sake of vulgarity. On the other hand, that could be the subject of the photos and then I guess that would be appropriate. Well...I guess this question is harder to answer than I thought. If I can shot the pictures the way that I want to, with no input from the people being photographed, etc. I would love to take pictures of things that may be considered taboo when photographed.

works in progress

idris khan

every...bernd and hilla becher gable-sided houses ~idris khan

This artist is from the UK, born in Birminghanm in 1978, he is well known for his superimposed images. For example he likes to take pictures where things are layered on top of each other such as the many pages of the Quran or Beethoven's musical scores. I thought that his work was very interesting. They reminded me of drawings, sketches in a book so to speak.

reality's illusion

Photography, as we all know, is not real at all. It is an illusion of reality with which we create our own private world." ~Arnold Newman

How true is this comment? I think that it is indeed truthful. To me anyway. I often find myself photographing something and then wondering what it would be like if this...or if that...For example, just today as I was taking pictures for class, I thought, "What if this was a enchanted space..." Yeah I know, but I can't help my imagination sometimes...it has a mind of its own. I look at things that I have taken and think that I would love to step into the picture and explore this moment in time more thoroughly, I would love to take a closer look and see what develops past the image. Photos are indeed an illusion of how we want the world to be sometimes.

imagination infinitely

"I believe in the imagination. What I cannot see is infinitely more important than what I can see." ~Duane Michals

I love this quote. It is definitely the way that I have always approached things. I employ my imagination like it pays me. I love to dream about what something could be, how much better it can get and where it will go in the future. In this respect I think that I am a little childlike. I really look at things in a different sort of light but fearing that I will not always be understood, I tend to present things to others in a way that I imagine an adult might. It is important to see beyond the reality of things, to see the potential and the greatness that something can be instead of what it may be at the present moment. That's what dreams are made of after all.

to show or not to show

"I think photographs should be provocative and not tell you what you already know. It takes no great powers or magic to reproduce somebody's face in a photograph. The magic is in seeing people in new ways." ~Duane Michals

I can't really say that I agree with this idea totally. While I am quite committed to surprise and coming to your own conclusion while viewing a piece of work, I do think that it is very important for people to be able to look at something that is and record it as it is. What I mean by this is that photography, while art at the core for most photographers, has the potential to be so much more. It is a way to teach, inspire, and reach millions. In this respect, I think that not only should we tell people what things are and what they have been, but we should also use photography to tell what can or could be.

Passage of Time

How do you convey far away and near and or familiar? I think that I would chose a place that was easy to recognize, like an urban setting with a skyscraper sky line. That would get the familiar point across right away, even if it wasn't a place that the viewer had been themselves. It would be easy to see it and conjure images of the city the viewer lives in etc. It would be a very easy setting to be comfortable with. On the other hand, I would use a very obscure, isolated place to convey the idea of a faraway place, maybe like a snow filled tundra with hardly any life depicted in it. Not only would this work to make the place seem unfamiliar and faraway, I think it would also show a sense of desolation. But honestly, I don't know how to photograph it, if it is a place that is undisturbed by humans, I would not want to be the one who tainted it.

Passage of Time

For the land art idea, I think it would be kinda cool if you made a living family tree, but this would involve the entire neighborhood. For instance, you could use the side of a store, you know the huge canvas that usually has a mural painted on it, only instead of a mural, we would start off by growing a vine. Eventually that vine would grow and cover the wall and all the while, people can add snippets of paper (which would last and fade and eventually crumble away) with names and dates on them.

final shots and thoughts

Soooo...here are the final four images that I decided to go on. I really had a hard time deciding which shots to use because I had so many to choose from, on top of that I think that I got some really good shots this time. Let's see...

composition, content, method, motivations, & context:

self portrait:

I have these three mirrors in my bathroom and I was looking at them one day and thought, "how cool would it be if I took a picture with the reflection from these as the main subject. I tried to get good contrast in this shot which was a little challenging because of the whit wall. I think that the contrast is mainly in the frames against the wall and the shadow that they create. I wanted the emphasis to be on the reflection even though it was less substantial than other things in the picture such as the darkness of the frames against the white wall. I tried to make sure that you could see a part of the image in all of the mirrors, this shot was extremely hard to balance because what you see reflected in the mirror is not what the camera sees. I used the light from the overhead light (mirror light) and as an additional source, a small desk lamp pointed up from the floor.
After looking at it again and again, and talking to various people about it, I think the concept is what you see versus what you get. Meaning that we all look at people and see an image of them that we have made up in our own minds. We see bits and pieces, not the whole scene, this is a play on that thought.
It took so many shots to get this done! I just started shooting, no reference to a drawing or anything but I did had an image in my head. I had to try it from different perspectives like up high and lower and at eye level. In the end the best shot was taken when I let go of the tripod, moved closer to the mirror and took the shot holding the camera out of frame.
The goal was to create an interesting self portrait without a lot of other stuff in the frame to distract the eye. I learned that you have to be very patient when trying something different, this shot still doesn't look like the image in my head!
I don't think my photo references anyone's work. I didn't research anyone or anything. But I guess I kinda got the idea from one of Anglea Straaheim's photos, the one where the father and son are getting ready for church. Although it looks like they are looking in the mirror, they are really staring intently into the camera. I guess if I had to pick a genre to place it in the category would be social issues, you know identity and stuff like that.

backlit subject:

For this composition, I wanted to focus on the face of the subject because I like the story that one can derive from the emotions displayed. I also wanted really high contrast, white against black kinda like a power struggle as I expected to get a huge range of emotion from the subject. In a way that's kinda what this shot is about, the regrets, thoughts, and things that bother us on a daily basis. The only light source was a desk lamp placed behind the subject which emphasizes the emotion on the face of the subject. Again this one would probably fall into the social category. I didn't use any references, just started talking and shooting.

perspective subject:

I was really just trying to get a shot with a lot of contrast in it, framed in a way that could make the same subject a little more interesting or make the viewer want to know what he was thinking. the lighting is from a floor lamp directed in front of the subject and then I took the photo from a different angle. The message is similar to the other, in fact I'm thinking of putting these together and making them a series. No references from other artist.

intimate person:

In this photo I wanted to focus on one of the things that I like the most about my intimate person. I didn't want a shot that shouted intimacy like someone kissing or something like that, so I thought about what it is we do with our imitate person like look into their eyes and such. This is a shot that would be hard to get with someone you don't know because the idea of a camera being shoved in their face would probably throw them off making the shot seem posed and stiff. I just used the light from the overhead lamp and placed him against a plain white background. I referenced my sister's photo, he had on glasses in that shot though and she was not as close. This also goes in the social category.

Part II

For all of the images the interpretation was what I intended it to be. I wanted to show a look into the side of people that you rarely see if you are having them pose for a picture. I wanted to have viewers look at the intensity of the facial expressions and leave with their own meaning on what was going through the mind of the subject. All four of my pieces accomplished that task. There were things that worked better in some images than in others. For example, in the last shot it was suggested that perhaps making the aperture smaller to increase depth of field would make the eyes pop out more and give a better focal point. In the third photo I would pay more attention to the detail of the shadow as it can out a bit weird, if I re-edit it, I will fix the smudge like effect on the bottom portion. Other than these small technicail problems, my group all agreed that my images were "working" in the way intended. If I used these for a jumping off point, I would make it into a series of deeper understanding. A way to reaching in and ask questions about whatever and photograph the thought process and such behind making a decision or coming up with a course of action.

photographic memory

This question makes me smile...I can see the two of us together sitting on the side of the graduation stage, red carnations in hand, little dresses spread across the stage. I'm in a pair of metal shoes, well, the shoes themselves aren't metal, but I have these braces on my legs. My cousin sits next to me, a little bit of a sad expression on her face. I suppose we were a tad bit bored...it wasn't our graduation we were just guests. It's kinda funny, out of all the photographs I could remember, this is the one that sticks out the most. One I didn't even take myself. When I think of or even see this image of our two year old selves, I am often reminded that we were together even before we were born. Days upon days have been spent in the company of the other, so much so that like twins, we often finish sentences for the other and more often than not, words are not even needed between us.

It is kinda obvious, the changes I mean. LOL, I'm not wearing braces anymore. We are of course much older and no longer hold on the the innocence that our expressions portrayed then. Sometimes we're not as close...the place is not there anymore. It has been replaced by a newer gymnasium. I'm sure that if I had to re-enact this scene now, we wouldn't be wearing those white and pale yellow frilly little dresses. I would surely nix the braces cause who wants to be reminded that they wore those atrocious things? Her hair would be combed...better at least. I can hear her saying that she hates the fact that her hair was uncombed...LOL. Yeah I would totally change that.

place of memory

If I close my eyes, I can see it. The place from my memory that has become a little hazy...and hazier still as the days go by. This place is Hikone. A small town in Shiga prefecture in Japan on Honshuu. I loved it. I can still taste the air, so clean and fresh right up until the point where you walk past a garden...then ewww, it kinda stinks. The time would have to be early morning, the sun is just coming up, peeking over the mountains and at night, you can see it sink into the lake. I am walking down the back street, must be on my way to the grocery store. I decided to take the scenic route. This is what I see...onions hanging from thick beige twine swinging gently in the morning breeze, you can smell them as you walk by. A grave yard and fresh water poured over the headstone...someone has been here already today...an old discarded bicycle that hasn't been used in ages...it sits in the tall grass becoming a part of the landscape, its light blue color popping out against the green and yellow of the grass as if it was a flower...small compact cars housed in tinier driveways, fuel efficient. The lake is to my right, lined with pine trees and little niches were people are sitting reading, smoking, whatever...the old and the new coming together in a seamless way...beautiful. The color of the road, the greys and browns, the speckles of white, the sound my flip-flopped feet make as my foot hits the concrete.The deep green of the trees, the darkness of the brown in the bark...the bright blue color on the house that kept my interest the entire time I was there...people all around now, it's a little later in the morning....I spent too much time looking at the scenery trying to commit it to memory I guess. I have pictures, of course, who doesn't have them of the places they love? And I do wonder if it is still the same. If I were to go back to that place, would it be still standing in the same time as it was when I left it?

top 6 pics