Advisor: Isak Berbic

Digital Phobic: Light in Analog

< Artist Statement >

I started to love photography and camera when I was in high school, so I had many experiences with diverse types of cameras. However, I did not have a good skill of photograph. I tried several years, I could have a skill, but I did not think I had enough ability to take pictures. Suddenly, I fall in love with analog, so I printed out all my pictures because I did not want to keep my pictures in a digital album. Also, I bought some old stuff, and my final step was a film camera. My first roll of film was horrible, but I was getting better. I thought that film and light cannot go together, so I wanted to combine them. I tried several times, so I threw away many film rolls. However, I found out that they can be friends, and film and light became my honors project concept.

My honors project has six main pictures and three motivation pictures. My motivation pictures are taken by me because they were test pictures for the honors project. I took them in late 2019 and early 2020 in the United States. My honors project pictures are film photographs. In honors project pictures, Light and restriction, Light and sunset, Light and light are color film, and Light and leaves, Light and décalcomanie, Light and tree are black and white film. In my motivation pictures, The bird and Lamp_c are color film, and Lamp_r is a color film, it is edited in black and white.

I focus on the sunlight in the honors project because after developing the light, a human does not need the natural light anymore, so I want to combine two things that have been forgotten in nowadays by technological advances.

< Motivation >

In 2017, my home country South Korea, the film camera trend has begun. For me, a film camera was my mother’s period, but after this trend, I want to try taking a picture with a film camera. Therefore, I bought a disposal film camera and took some pictures. I did not know how to use a film camera, so I just pushed the shutter. My first film was almost black because I never had experience with the film, so I took pictures like a digital camera. After I got the first film pictures, I studied about film camera, and I bought my first film camera. I was a cheap one, I did not want to waste my money. I thought I would get tired of it quickly. However, I was not. I was immediately immersed in the sensibilities of not being able to check the status of the picture. I usually focus on daily life routine, so I take many pictures that interpret things that are easily found in everyday life differently. ‘Light’ is a part of my life as it is essential to me, and no one thinks special, so I put the light on the film.

Light is indispensable to human. Therefore, human life is mostly connected to light. In the past, all activities continued during the time the sun was up, but after the light was discovered, activity restrictions were removed, and night and day distinctions were removed. However, after the light was discovered, humans began to use it for themselves. At the same time, I began to lose interest in natural light. As the scope of indoor activities expanded, the number of outdoor activities decreased dramatically, and most of the time was spent indoors. Is that why? Humans have begun to bring everything into their radius of action. Especially, they wanted everything in nature to be next to them. At the same time, the desire for natural light, sunlight, grew bigger and bigger. However, sunlight has never abandoned humans. It was always on the side of humans, and it was just holding everyone together. Digital Photographic: Light in Analog is a film about how much nature, especially light, is affecting their lives.

I liked my second film roll because it gave me diverse concepts of film pictures. After the first roll and before the second roll, I did not want to take a picture because the film developing cost is pretty expensive. However, I wanted to go toward it, so I went to go outside, and took diverse things. I took sunlight, ocean, and grass. My figures were nature, but I did not take a nature that much, so it was challenging for me. When I got my second film pictures, I chose an honors program topic.

I did not make a title for this picture, but the rhombus on the top is sunlight. My setting was not enough to take sunlight, so I got the rhombus shape of sunlight with a flying bird. I was inspired by this picture for light, so I want to know how it looks like the light in the film.

After that, I wanted to know artificial light in the film, so I tried several times, and I found that out light in the film will satisfy my concept film concept.

This light was on the ceiling, so it could not move, but it was in my room. So it did not have enough natural light. However, it came out very clearly, so I knew that the inside film picture can have a clear resolution and clear line.

This light was car light, and the car was moving, and it was night time. So the camera did not have enough light and time to capture, but it came pretty clear. It seems like a little bit burly, but the clear line and right color.

It was my last test of light in the film. This street lamp was very tall, and my film camera lens was not able to zoom. It was a very late night time, and only this light was on the street. I thought that my camera cannot capture the light, but it can. I was very satisfied with this picture because of the clear line and right color.

These three pictures gave me clear ideas of light in the film, so I want to connect with daily routine and light. I can see countless light in my daily life, and they have different properties. Suddenly, I want to know the sunlight and my daily life. I cannot see the sunlight a lot, but I can see every day. Also, it has a different feeling every day with an object.

< Honors project picture Description >

Title: Light and restriction, Date: January 2020, Dimension: 36″(h) x 24″(w), Medium: Film Photograph

Modern people are with countless lights. If you go outside, you can see the intense sunlight. People know that sunlight is very beneficial to them, but modern people are accompanied by human-made interior lights among the many lights. How long do you think you’ll be under the sun until you wake up in the morning and fall asleep at night? Or will it be more than 10 hours in the sun by turning it on for a whole week? Modern people always say “We don’t have enough time to do outdoor activities, and we don’t have enough time to get sunlight, so you have to take some health supplements like vitamins.” However, if you think about it, no one stops outdoor activities. In Light and restriction, the sun is waiting for people, but people may not be able to see the sun because they are blocked by themselves.

< Honors project picture Description >

Title: Light and sunset, Date: October 2019, Dimension: 36″(h) x 24″(w), Medium: Film Photograph

It is very hard to see the morning sun rise. However, setting the sun is easier to see than you think. Nevertheless, it is not easy to remember when you saw the sun set. Each person has reason for why he or she cannot see the sunset. For example, company’s work may lead to the end of the day and return home, or may not realize that the sun sets due to study. However, how unfair would it be if you were stuck indoors all day and couldn’t even see the sunset when you couldn’t see it? And sunset is more beautiful than any sky or sun-themed work, and the sky created by sunset creates an atmosphere that cannot be changed from anything else. Your sky, which you face while walking down the street around 6-7 p.m., will be more beautiful than Light and sunset because of the light from nature.

< Honors project picture Description >

Title: Light and sunset, Date: March 2020, Dimension: 36″(h) x 24″(w), Medium: Film Photograph

Light is moving around you countless times, but you can’t confirm that light is moving. Because human body structure cannot detect moving light. Nevertheless, there is one way to confirm it. It is taking a picture. It will be very difficult to take a picture without shaking or smudging when you take a picture of light. It can’t be helped. Because that’s the nature of light itself. What if I took a picture of the light on a moving object? You can meet a world that leads to an entirely unexpected line. Those lines are not man-made, but they can be art works or someone’s research topic. In Light and light, two lights coexist, both of which move Will everyone move together because it’s a moving light? Can you capture the same moving light at once?

< Honors project picture Description >

Title: Light and leaves, Date: March 2020, Dimension: 36″(h) x 24″(w), Medium: Film Photograph

Light is the most important factor for plants. However, human greed has led them to lose their freedom. The plants in Light and leaves also enter the man-made world of nature, regardless of their intentions. Man-made artificial interior spaces are bound to have less natural light, so the plants in Light and leaves receive only a very limited amount of light. Because of human greed, plants are not in place, and even if they have been deprived of such freedom, they are not given the condition to live properly. However, even under such circumstances, light is everywhere, and plants depend on it to live from day to day.

< Honors project picture Description >

Title: Light and décalcomanie, Date: March 2020, Dimension: 36″(h) x 24″(w), Medium: Film Photograph

Light makes a lot of thing, and it is also the most commonly used material in art works because people can use light to create new things. However, when light occurs on its own and produces something that it never thought of, humans cannot follow the work. Natural light is in outdoor, but when the natural light enters the room, it can also be a way to create new works. Indoor and outdoor are mostly flowing into different worlds. With man-made windows between them, music flows out loud outside and people giggle along the street, but inside, it seems like a quiet time for individuals. However, as light enters through and shadows are created. The shadows work together inside and outside, the same but completely different world unfolds and becomes a work of art itself.

< Honors project picture Description >

Title: Light and tree, Date: February 2020, Dimension: 36″(h) x 24″(w), Medium: Film Photograph

Have you ever been to a forest where trees are densely packed? Modern people have become so accustomed to the life of the city that it has become very rare to find a forest. Even going into the forest was converted by humans. But if you happen to get into an undeveloped forest by chance, you will easily get lost. Because the trees in the forest will not give you a chance to see the light. If you don’t see the light and keep walking the wrong way, you’ll find it even harder to get out of there, and no one will find you. However, in the meantime, trees give you a chance to see the light. Through some cracks you will be able to find light. I don’t know if the gap was made naturally or by humans. I’m just glad to see the light found through the cracks in Light and tree.

< Motivation picture Description >

The bird, 2019, Film photograph, 36 x 24 inch

Have you ever tried to take a picture of the sun outside on a very clear day? If you have, you might have trouble taking a picture of the sun because the camera cannot take the sun or light well. Think about it, you cannot see the light directly if you want to see the sun, you have to wear sunglasses. The camera is the same as well, you can take a picture of the sun, but you will not like it. You cannot get clear sunlight, The bird is the same as well. The pentagon is sunlight, but it comes out some shapes, not the light. Maybe the clear day with no cloud makes different light shapes.

< Motivation picture Description >

Lamp_r, 2019, Film photograph, 36 x 24 inch

Nowadays, the life span of light bulbs increases due to technological advances, so there is no need to change more than once a year. I do not know it is good for people or not because it means that people do not need a lot of around their lives. In the past, people have to keep attention to their environment, but now people do not think that much. Even though Lamp_r turns on only one bulb, I do not think a lot. I do not spend much time in my room, and I think one bulb is enough to light the whole room. However, I do not know this bulb’s last moment, if it at the end of one’s life, I will change.

< Motivation picture Description >

Lamp_c, 2019, Film photograph, 36 x 24 inch

My father always tells me that does not turn on the car light when the car is moving. Therefore, I almost forgot about the car light in the back seat. However, the car light has meaning for staying there, if it does not need to be there, no one puts in here. Think about it how many times you turn on the car light, you turn this light very rarely. When you lose in the car at night time, you will turn the light. You will often forget many things because you do not need them. If that is the light, then you will need necessary when you are in danger or need help.

< Conclusion >

I am living with countless light, it can be daylight, sunlight, and artificial light. However, I usually stay with artificial light even though outside has bright sunlight. Also, I am taking at least 10 pictures every day, but pictures are taken by cell phone, not a camera. When I take a picture, I check the light for a good result because light makes a nice shadow for figures and looks nicer. However, I do not think that I should take light itself. Maybe the light is an essential material for my life, so I do not think it is a special thing for me.

However, if I were in the past, I would not live like right now. I cannot take a picture anytime, and check right away. I have to take a picture with a film camera, and I have to wait until spending the roll and developing the film. Also, I should go outside to take a picture because in the past I cannot control the light.

Living in digital life has numerous advantages, technology makes my life very easy, and I am enjoying this life. However, sometimes, I want to escape this life because digital makes my life simplified. Can I live analog life with digital life? I can say yes. I can find a diverse way to find analog things right now and I can use or enjoy it.

In short, after light invention, the analog period was gone, but if I want the analog, I can bring it now. Also, I can combine these two different things in my picture. The film is one of the representative items of analog, and light is one of the representative items of digital. When they put in the same frame. They make a new world like pictures in Digital Phobic : Light in Analog