Visual Studies I with Alex and Joe

In this first project I started out kind of confused on what I was suppose to produce. Over time it became clear to me when I started to visit South Congress. I started off taking pictures of things I thought where visually appealing. When I would get back and look at my pictures I saw some gestalt principles in all of them but as a whole they where very scattered and did not go well together. When I went back out I knew I wanted to take pictured of plants of focus on that only. I thought it would be interesting to take pictures of the weeds that grew in-between the sidewalks. Those were my initial thoughts going into the project.

I needed to work on my explanation of my work so it actually has meaning to others and me. I knew what I wanted to say but I had a hard time putting my thoughts into words. The critique I got as a whole was very useful. I now know that I need to work on explanations of my work and how to relate it back to the project as a whole.

Project 1 Reflection: Production, Presentation, Critique!

Production

I learned a lot about my own abilities and interests (what excites me and what I’m good and not-so-good at) as well as the expectations of quality and thoroughness for projects within this class. This project also acted as a great introduction to photography and the essential ideas behind creating and decoding an image. This also provided a great reason for me to actually understand the different types of files, sizes, and programs.

When I began to focus on the combination of objects and window reflections, multiple “worlds” (the conceptual, physical, emotional) began to merge into and interact with one another, which created quite a “separate togetherness”. Overall I really loved and learned a lot technically and conceptually from this project.

Presentation

I think I did a good job communicating the purpose, importance and development of the images; I had planned out ideas of what I wanted to say, but there was a point in my presentation when I began to describe things to the class in a way I hadn’t planned. I was able to capture and create a new understanding within myself this way (I felt really “in the moment” while presenting!) and Joe and Juliana described my speaking as “eloquent” (which was awesome!). My presentation of my images did go overtime, and this may have been in part of the number of images I had.

Critique

Both Joe and Alex strongly suggested editing the selection of images for the collection (which I will attempt further down in the post!). For the individual images the comments were very positive. I was told that my images were like “little poems”!

Both Joe and Alex thought that “The Onlooker” was one of the most visually appealing, and Alex thought it was interesting because it was essentially a “picture of nothing” but color, emptiness, and a few surrounding objects which framed the “nothing”. Joe also said that he really liked “Irresolute” as well as my quirky titles for each image (“that I seemed to take very seriously”)!

The major criticism was that there were some images that were much more intriguing and effective than others, and some of the images could be taken out (“You think, Why aren’t they ALL fantastic?“).  They also suggested that I pay attention to the order of the presentation of images (I think I subconsciously placed them in a order that made sense to me the first time, but I didn’t put a lot of mental energy into it).

One point of the critique that really stuck with me was when Joe asked rhetorically, “How many words are necessary to tell a story?”. This question will be replaying over and over in my mind as I edit and grow more in the art field.

Editing and Re-submission of Image Collection:

For this renewed collection, I removed five images and left nine (I didn’t realize I had so many because at the time I was more focused on them individually and thematically, rather than putting a lot of thought into them as a concise collection). I’ve possibly kept more than necessary still, but I currently like these images and how they progress and recede from start to end. I ordered the images by composition as well as by the emotions I believe they evoke. I still think the two images at the end are effective together in telling the “story”, and both supply a variety and sense of unity of lines.

I think this has really become a reflection of me longing and attempting to break a “window” of personal inhibitions, while addressing the emotions that blur in and out of us as we are either physically or emotionally separated from something or someone. I’ve noticed through this that I enjoy intertwining language with visual images and concepts to create a sort of poetic image of layered meaning and motivation, and I hope to continue growing out these interests I have while taking into great account the need for self-critique and editing as I go into our future projects.

I think that I was fairly successful with my first project. I really feel like I got a lot out of the critique, and now I know how to clean up my final project even more. I had fun taking the pictures of people’s feet and showing how they walk and playing with the idea of closure and narrative. During the critique, I realized how much asymmetrical balance was a part of my pictures because I had known that there was something slightly off about them, making them seem almost a little uncomfortable and awkward. Overall, I wanted to show my project as playful and funny, and I think that came across pretty well. The only problem I really had was with editing, because I chose too many pictures and it can be distracting and overwhelming. I edited down to seven out of the twelve photos to make them read more clearly as a set because, this way, I think they are more cohesive.

My point of view was to focus on the way people walk, stand, and interact with each other  on South Congress. I wanted to take pictures of people, but not in the typical way. I chose to take truncated pictures that focus mainly on the subjects’ feet and legs, especially when that subject is in motion or interacting with another. The primary principle dominating my selection of photos is the Gestalt principle of closure. By taking these close cropped photos of people’s legs and feet, I feel like there is an aspect of the pictures that requires the viewer to infer more about the subject, making connections like if some feet are grouped together, maybe it is a group of friends or a family. I think that there is something interesting about the truncated feet without bodies because it leaves a lot up to the imagination.

In this picture, I wanted to capitalize on the truncated nature of the legs and feet and the movement behind them. I also wanted to show the Gestalt principle of repetition through the identical white and red shoes and the diagonal line that they create through the picture plain.

Here, I wanted to show the Gestalt principle of closure. Even though the woman;s hand is cropped out, the eye is still led up the dog’s leash to where we assume the hand holding the leash would be. The eye of the viewer follows the diagonal line to the presumed point of origin.

In this photo, I primarily showed repetition via the concrete squares of the sidewalk because they are the same shape repeated. I also wanted to show the motion of the girl’s legs because the rest of the figure is cut out, yet there is a clear motion, making the figure truncated.

In this photo, I wanted to show the Gestalt principles of grouping and closure. There is closure because all of the legs and shoes come together to create a triangle, or pyramid shape, that isn’t necessarily purposeful, but is assumed to be a triangle. There is also grouping because all of the feet can be associated together and they are all doing the same thing (walking.)

Here, I wanted to show closure. The image is of a mother and daughter, but because the image is cropped around the legs, the interaction between the two subjects must be inferred. It’s up to the imagination to create a scenario for the two subjects because the mind wants closure for the image.

Here, I wanted to show containment. Because the subject is walking along a thin strip of concrete resembling a balance beam, the viewer gets the sense that there is a feeling of balance and and almost trapped momentum which related to closure.

In this picture, I wanted to show the Gestalt principle of grouping. I did this by capturing similar objects and grouping them together in the picture plain. there is obvious similarity between all the feet, even if some are dogs’.

Based on the critique I received in class on the Gestalt project, I have a better understanding of what it means to “edit” the collection of photos I am presenting and choose a set that compliment each other but that also are effective when they stand alone. I noticed, after Joe pointed out the industrial rustic feel of the first three photos below, that the other three I chose in the first blog did not have the same warm weathered tones that the other three did. Because of this lack of connection between all six of my photos, my presentation and final product were not as effective as they could have been. I also got a better idea of the language I need to use in presenting my projects and that I need to be prepared to speak confidently about my work. Although it was hard being the first one to present, I learned how to think quickly and attempt to speak clearly so that I could communicate the thoughts being generated, while ignoring the jittery nervousness from put on the spot.

Below are three of my original photos that seemed most cohesive in the collection. The other two are images that I felt complimented and fit better with the first three in terms of content and color. The last two that I added were not edited because the last day of my trial was due today and I didn’t sign up in time to edit them, but I think their presence and content blends more nicely with the other three photos than the ones I had in my collection before.

One of the main insights I got from the critiques was to generate work that you like and are interested in, or your boredom and indifference will show when you present the final product. I found that going out and shooting things of interest and seeking out compositions and imagery resulted in the inherent use of many of the Gestalt principles without intentionally looking for examples of each one. Those principles of design are what make the image possible and real to the eye, and without them there is nothing but empty, dead space. Overall, the critique was very helpful and gave me a few different ways of thinking about class projects in the future.

After finishing my project and going through the entire presentation process over the critiques, I realized I spent too much time on trying to capture the Gestalt principles in my images, rather than taking images and applying principles to those images. When taking pictures, I tried finding examples of images that would reflect continuity and repetition, and my photos ended up not being the best, but I felt like they did look better in a group, and some definitely stood out more. I feel like I took the project a little too literal though, and after watching the presentations of my classmates, I realized that was not the objective for our project. Overall, I took the project from a more literal perspective instead of a creative perspective, and could have done a lot better if I knew to be more creative with it. I learned to not take it so seriously, and to have fun with my projects while also trying to complete the assignment. Altogether, the critique helped me somewhat break out of my comfort zone, and let me explore and try new things with my projects. At first I was afraid to be critiqued because I have never had someone look at my work before and tell me where I needed work, but critiques are there to help us grow, improve our work, and learn from our mistakes and I feel as if the critique was very helpful to me and helped guide me to where I should be heading.

The class critiques were helpful input from someone else’s perspective. Sometimes when you have paid too much attention to any project you are working on it is helpful to step back and look again to make sure you are still on track and not losing track. For this project we worked with many images and it made it difficult to narrow it down and choose a certain group of pictures that worked well together. When choosing my  photos I focused on lines, repetition and grouping, I played around with some of the photos and flipped them either vertical or horizontal to make the image more appealing and interesting. Alex mentioned that she liked how I am at the service of the image and not the other way around. Joe said he was not excited about my reflection or shadow images, which I agree and was aware of this. Critiques are always a learning experience and as artists we need to understand and value comments so we we may grow from the experience and become better at the different roles we play as an artist.