Project 1 Final Images

An intimate relationship is formed by spending time in close proximity to another person. The more time you spend the better you get to know them and the habits, mannerisms, and quirks that make them who they are. You not only see the bright moments in their lives, but the vast expanses in between. Our understanding of a person can only be gathered from what we experience with them, or second hand experiences we hear about. I chose to photograph myself for this project. Who else do I spend more time with and know more about? I am a very busy person and for the majority of the week I have consecutive time commitments leaving little, if any, down time. This means I am with other people the vast majority of the time. For this project I chose to focus on the expanses in between, the moments when I am by myself, the moments no one else sees. I feel black and white images accurately convey this. They aren’t bright moments in my life, they are moments that go unnoticed to outsiders. When I have down time, it’s almost as if I don’t know what to do, but at the same time I don’t feel as if I can accomplish anything. I want to be able to relax, but this is so contrary to what I’m used to that I am unable to just be still whether its to relax, or accomplish something like homework. I feel conflicted and unsatisfied with how I’m spending my time. There are also other factors that come into feeling unsatisfied. Being a college student often means barely having enough money for rent, bills, food, and especially for fun. I try to fill this time, but am I really doing anything?

Project 1 In Progress

Assignment One Proposal

I plan to have between 5-8 final images somewhere in the range of 8 x 10 for this project. While shooting I will be using the continuous mode in order to have many images to choose from with slight variations to insure I get the best possible image. I will be using myself as the subject matter, which I haven’t done before, so I can imagine I will shoot lots of images in order to make sure they are more natural looking and not over posed. I’ll be shooting exclusively in situations where I’m alone, this could be in my apartment, in my car, outside, anywhere really, I don’t want to limit myself at this point. At this time I don’t think there will be a main emotion the work is supposed to elicit. I was intrigued by the statement in the project description that said “Instead of the bright occasions, focus on the expanses in-between”, which can cover a vast amount of emotions.  Being a photographer and enjoying taking pictures I already take pictures of the “bright occasions” and lots of the in between moments so that really only leaves taking pictures of situations where I’m alone. I also liked the word expanses, implying spending a significant amount of time. I plan to analyze the way I spend my time when I don’t have anything scheduled and just the times when I’m alone. I’m anticipating that many of these activities will be mundane things and unnecessary things that I spend time on. For this reason I think I will work with black and white images to create the feeling that these are the exciting/”bright” times, and are the moments in between the “bright” moments. Also, the only other digital photo class I’ve taken has been Color Photography so I haven’t worked exclusively in black and white with digital images and thats a skill I’d like to improve. My main influence so far is Brenda Beban because she took photos of herself when she was alone. There were many other photographers whose photos I enjoyed artistically and conceptually, but I think there is a huge difference between photographing your close friends and family and photographing yourself.