PROJECT TITLE  “Seek to Find”

PROJECT DESCRIPTION 

For my final project, I intend to photograph little items/trinkets/memories inside my house by composing the still life with fabrics and colored backgrounds that interact with the items in a dynamic way. I would like to explore complementary and analogous color combinations in a fluid way that doesn’t seem mechanical or forced. My reasoning behind the subject matter is emphasized by my restriction to my house due to covid19 quarantine. As I cannot take to the streets and photograph my community or people as I used to, I am forced to seek beauty within my own house- which can be very difficult at times (especially as it is so overlooked due to the mundane humdrum of everyday life. I’d like to challenge myself to find certain items that look beautiful or remind me of beauty, and position them in ways that can reflect that intention. This is challenging due to the fact that these items on their own sit as junk or clutter, or perhaps something so unoriginal and small that it couldn’t possibly be seen as art. Additionally, l would like to have a major theme of emphasizing shadows in my series of images. Be it through the fabric folds, the position and intensity in lighting, high contrast etc. For images where I do not (or can not) use fabric as the background, I would like to explore “clean” backgrounds of solid color planes which will interact with the subject matter in an arresting way.  

REFERENCES

I really enjoy Richard Avedon’s work, and especially love his images such as the Beekeeper portrait with a sterile white background. 

I am also heavily influenced by Martin Parr’s Retrospective at Barbican, London in 2002 where he photographed vintage themed household items. You can see it at this link: 

https://www.martinparr.com/archive/exhibitions/retrospective/