Artistic Statement:
Ever since I was young, I've always loved taking photos because they are the memories that I can forever hold and never forget. I wanted to learn how to take better photos and not just be another person who has no idea what they are doing with a camera. This semester, I learned many techniques such as, lighting, shadows, aperture, ISO, etc. All of these little things helped me accomplish taking better photos that have more depth in them. Meaning, that you have to think about what type of moments you want to capture, and how you can make it look the best picture it can be. Photography has helped me learn that I can imagine and make up things or objects that symbolize greater things. Like taking a picture of your reflection in the water is yes, just a puddle maybe, but it could also symbolize looking into your inner self and finding a kind of serenity or a contemplation of who you are. The difficult challenged for me this semester was mostly photo shopping the pictures to add an effect. It was often times of me tedious work and I was not very good at it, especially when we had to develop many photos in one class period. My favorite project this semester was light writing because it was fun to create and you can could be an artist and photographer at the same time. Anything you could think of, you can draw with light. It made you feel like you had superpowers, but most the time it could only last for 30 seconds. The project and work that I would redo would be my levitation photos because I just can not seem to get the shadows in the right place to make it look believable.
In my final self portraits, I decided to reveal the more sad parts of my life. In the photo with the piano, there is an older me, and a younger me that has color, yet is faded for it is in my past because memories will slowly fade over time. As a child I loved playing piano all the time and I played for 8 years, but just this year I decided to quit due to being to stressed from school and other extra curricular activities. It was just too much to keep practicing all the time on top of everything else, but now I look back and regret not taking lessons or playing as often as I used to. In the second photo, there are tears sliding down my face because sometimes I feel as if I have a lot of expectations that I can not achieve. The report card represents grades that my parents may have not wanted, and on top of that I am trying to urgently finish a book for English class which is coincidentally a depressing book about death. In addition to all the expectations, there is many responsibilities that I have being the oldest of 5 kids. There is lots of stress at times, and in the third photo, it's as if I am trying to run away from them. But the red coat symbolizes that I am a child so of course I will never run away because I need to learn to grow up properly. Still wanting to get rid of some of the stress and pressure. And finally in the last picture, sometimes I may feel a little lonely because I always am at home in my little bubble doing school work or something of the sort. And often times I forget that I need to get out or else I am going to be alone in a world with people around me. What I want for people to comprehend from these photos are maybe a feeling of confusion or having themselves question why I made the colors the way I did, or why there is a gloomy setting in the photos, so I can have them really think on what the problem is.
For future Photography 1 students, my advice to them would be to really get into the projects that we do in the class. Really try because you will actually enjoy this elective class a lot and you can really create beautiful pictures everyone can enjoy.
