Final Project

The Girl with the Violin

 

Yes?

 

Lux

 

Where I’ve Been

 

Looking

 

Wanderer

 

Tractor

 

By the Tracks

 

For my final project, I chose to focus on portraiture because I am very interested in people’s emotion and the manipulation of faces in photography. This project will have four separate sections, one for each sub-series. The first two are of my two friends from home. We are all just having fun, dressing up, and in wigs. The second is of my friend Keenan at Staller Steps, just relaxing before finals. The third is of my roommate Maurinne at our elementary school in Riverhead, where we just took many pictures. The fourth is of my friend Alex while it was snowing at the train tracks.

 

References: Annie LeibovitsMark Steinmetz and Angus McBean

Portrait: Stranger

It was very weird asking people to take pictures of them. The first guy I asked to take a picture of thought I wanted to buy something from his bake sale. The girl I asked to take a picture of was with a friends and I think I offended her friend because I only asked the one girl. These two were very friendly about it though. I asked another girl and she said no, and it was a very awkward time for both of us. I like how the pictures turned out, but if I were to do this again, I think I would wait until its warmer out, so I can take pictures of people who are outside.

Untitled: 1/30 sec. f/5.6 ISO 320

 

Untitled: 1/15 sec. f/4.2 ISO 500

Portrait: Friend

I think taking pictures of people you know is pretty easy. I took many pictures and asked her opinion on the places and poses she did. I made sure she was comfortable and not looking directly at the sun. I was taking some pictures purposefully knowing I’d want them in black and white and other not-knowing if they’d be better in black and white or color. It didn’t take much time and I am very happy with how the pictures turned out.

 

Looking Forward: 1/125 sec f/4.8 ISO 200

Warm: 1/800 sec f/4.8 ISO 200

Story Project

I based my story series on a Greek myth called Orpheus and Eurydice. Orpheus was a great singer and musician who everyone adored. He fell in love with Eurydice and the two had just been married when a poisonous snake bit Eurydice’s ankle and killed her. Orpheus, filled with grief, was determined to get his love back from the Underworld. He makes his way to the Underworld and sings to Hades and Persephone, asking to take Eurydice back with him. They are so moved by his performance that they allow him to take her back on one condition: that he would not look back at her until they reached the mortal world. He walked back to the mortal world, but he was impatient and looked before he should. All he saw was Eurydice fading back into the darkness and the last thing he heard was “Farewell”.

Serenade

Bite

Fading

Where? Why?

Underworld

The Entrance

The Ones

Don’t Look Back

 

Sally Mann Summary

Sally Mann was born in Lexington, Virginia in 1951. One of her first series was ‘Immediate Family’ (1984-1991) and gained the most attention due to her intimate pictures of her children. Many use the term ‘erotic’ when referring to the pictures of her children, but she prefers the less sexual term, ‘sensual.’ She likes to play with the inherent truth associated with a photograph and the fiction she created.

The Wall Street Journal censored Virginia Mann (Sally’s youngest daughter) by blocking out her eyes, breasts, and vagina. Virginia wrote back to the newspaper expressing her disappointment with the newspaper. This is an example of how many ridiculed Mann for her exploitation of her children for art. Many believe this is child abuse and enabling child pornography. Although people wanted to see Mann be pursued by the Government, she never was, although people wondered: Can her children really give consent at this age or to the photographer who is a parent? During one of her shows, a popular evangelist rallied many of his supporters against her. It all dissolved, but that was/is one of her biggest fears.

Sally Mann’s work addresses the touchy issues of death, aging, memory, and mortality. She has many different types of photographs, one of which is the ambrotypes. They consist of wet plate negatives set against black glass to appear as positives. These plates are prone to many accidents that many think can ruin a piece, but Mann accepts them, calling them “happy accidents.”

On December 8th, 2000, a prisoner escaped onto the Manns’ farm and there was a shoot-out between him and the police. It ended when the convict shot himself in the head. After the fact, Mann took photos of the area and the spot was permanently changed in her mind. Mann said about the area, as well as battle fields, “Earth doesn’t care where people die…but it’s the artist that carries the meaning to the earth.” This was the beginning of taking pictures of the occurrence of death/post-mortem. She began taking photos of her dead dog’s bones (Eva) and she had to ask herself, “When does it stop becoming Eva?” She also was granted access to a forensic study facility where they study the decay/decomposition of human bodies.

Resource:

Project 3: Altered Perception

The Charles Bonnet Syndrome causes people with vision loss to hallucinate. People who have this are afraid to talk about it because they are afraid of being labelled as insane. The first image shows how people hallucinate trees and inanimate objects. The following 2 images shows that the most common hallucinations are of faces. The fourth image are two pictures of bed springs overlapping one another to show sufferers of this Syndrome often see repeating simple patterns. The fifth image shows that they also hallucinate people, with the background blurred out because they cant see very well. Finally, the sixth image pays tribute to Charles Bonnet, who first discovered this illness because his grandfather would hallucinate birds. Half of these photos are black and white, while the other are in color, to show that the hallucinations can vary either way. 

 

Anchor in Deep

       

Face

The Eyes

Springs

Do You See Me?

Bonnet Ducks

Still Life Project Part1

ISO

Lowest ISO: 200. 1/100th, f/8

Highest ISO: 3200. 1/80, f/8.

 

EXPOSURE

Normal Exposure: 1/25. ISO 200, f/8

Over Exposure: 1/250th. ISO 2500, F/32

Under Exposure: 5s. ISO 2500, f/4.5

 

WHITE BALANCE

Correct White Balance. ISO 220, 1/125, f/8.

ISO 2500, 1/25 sec. f/8

Incorrect White Balance. ISO 2500, 1/25 sec. f/8

VIEWPOINT

Straight Ahead

Side View. ISO 400, 1/125 sec. f/5.6

 

DEPTH OF FEILD

ISO 1400, 1/125 sec. f/5.6

Shallow Depth of Field: ISO 1000, 1/125 sec. f/5

Deep Depth of Field: ISO 3200, 1/25 sec. f/25

 

SHUTTER SPEED

Fast Shutter Speed: ISO 3200, 1/4000 sec. f/5.6

Slow Shutter Speed:ISO 3200, 1 sec. f/5.6