Tomato!

These are the faces that I have drawn and then put in to photoshop to touch up...and I think they look a lot better than the others I had used from google. :)

Tomato Tomato



I have decided to go with the food idea...using a narrative about cherry tomatoes who get murdered by an evil human. The lighting I am going to use will be harsh spotlight and will get darker as the butchering act begins.
I chose tomatoes because of their colouring and their juicyness when cut open which is almost blood like.

Possible idea for project

Colour in a black and white world

Well...I was thinking about possibly playing with black and white photos only highlighting certain features in colour.

In terms of a narrative I think I will have one main character who wanders around the black and white streets as an 'alien', as someone 'different' and slowly either everything that he touches will change to colour or he will change things into colour in the area he is in.

As a series I might start him out as portraying a very lonely life and then eventually introducing colour and possibly a partner.

I think colour could symbolise life and vibrancy and the pictures that I take will be slightly morbid with a dull feeling with one part of it being different/happy and full of life.

Project 2 proposal

With this project I am going to explore what we eat...
My initial idea includes showing the perspective of food as the victim who has feelings and emotions and started to consider a murder scene at the dinner table. Making the human look like some sort of giant monster.
Another idea I may choose to explore is how we refer to the human body as 'pear shaped' or 'bean pole'. A narrative I could work with is the idea of a pear getting slimmer and slimmer with every bite. Focusing on the pear having body issues and the idea of diet but also having the pear as a reflection of the human and healthy eating and its benefits.
My most recent thought is called 'pet food' where I am thinking of exploring the idea 'what if we started to eat our pets?...I was thinking about fish being fed in a fish bowl, with the next snap being of a fish ina pan, then being eaten and finally finishing with more fish in the fish bowl. Although this probably means killing a fish eeeek...I dont know how I feel about that?
In terms of lighting I will either work in studio type lighting bringing out bright and vibrant colours where necessary and focusing on how lighting can portray a feeling.
The food photographers that I will be using include Michael Ray and Lou Mana for their abilities to capture the different characteristics of food.

Lou Manna

Lou Manna...



View his website here

it is honestly worth checking out...

I love his photographs especially the fruit and veg photos...
The image below makes me think of the pear as a vulnerable object






I can just imagine the image above to be edited with smiling little pea faces and then in the next shot a hand ripping them from their comfy little home with shocked little faces...

His cocktail photography is worth checking out...totally makes you feel thirsty after looking at it.

I think Lou Manna has a great sense of light and colour but I also think he in a way captures what the food represents and brings out its qualities...the colour in corn photograph above with its golden yellow lighting captures the essense of how we see corn.

Where to go with food...

Well there are a few different ways I can go in terms of food...

The Vegetarian approach
The battle between junk food and Healthy food
A horror scene at the dinner table

Michael Ray

Michael Ray is a professional food photographer that I came across in my research... you can view his website here

He has worked for the following companies...

I love how crisp/fresh and inviting his images are in terms of colour...here are a few of my favourite images from his website...

I think he uses a great depth of field in his images conveying the most important aspects and a great sense of lighting for each individual food it is clearly something he spends a lot of time on.

Ideas for project two...

Project 2

So I was trying to get down to a few ideas for this project...

from the lectures the two photographers I liked most were:

Gregory Crewdson especially for this photograph... it has a creepy/alien type feel to it...conveyed by the light beam in such a suburbian area.

I also Loved the series 'Understanding Joshua' by Charlie white especially for this picture...as it is so cleverly staged as a typical party scene except for this alien like creature who does not quite blend in. I also like the colour in this image...it has studio lighting qualities.

On facebook I actually thought of my concept through this video clip from youtube 'Marshmallow Murder'

Which I just found hilarious...I think I want to take a comical approach to this project by 'giving food a face' and feelings...shooting pictures of food and then merging in different expressions. I feel if our food had a face/personality/feelings we would feel differently about eating it...

There is heaps of food advertising around which gives personalities to our food...

The Extra gum ad...

I was also trying to think of the yoghurt ad that shows the yoghurt leaping up with little arms and legs wanting to be eaten.

Proposal

My project has taken a few different turns in terms of concept.
What I have decided to portray is how social networking sites make what are supposed to be intimate and personal moments public.
The most intimate of moments I could think of was breaking up and how this can now be portrayed online on facebook with 'Hope went from "in a relationship" to "single".
Because I wanted to add some narrative 'status updates' I decided to go with a comic book strip layout.
I think facebook is becoming a stand in for face to face communication, people share a lot about themselves online and it is funny how facebook has become the way in which I personally find out whether my friends are in a new relationship, have had babies and are engaged etc.
Facebook has removed the need for face to face communication and invaded our personal lives.
Precedents i will use are...Matt Stuart for his quirky style of photography of people in everyday situations and also Garfield and peanuts comic strips which tell short but interesting stories.


Final Images

The first image sets the scene....

This image shows what is going on however does not necessarily show who these people are...they could be friends...siblings...family...partners

In this Image I wanted to show intimacy, making it a private moment and makes you realise this is a couple

This image is used to twist the series...to show something bad has happened but does not suggest what...

Finally this image ties in the series and shows you that the couple just broke up...the reason I have included other statuses in this image is to show how 'single' then becomes available to everyone...and that is why i have included other statuses in the image...your new post is available to your social network and is therefore normalised...

As a series I think the images work strongly in terms of narrative

I decided to go with these images for my final series as I feel that they build up an intimate and private moment. This is then shaken up with the spilling of the coffee cup and then the discovery that this is actually a break up. The last image shows how my status has changed from in a relationship to single and with the use of facebook text boxes I am able to capture the essence of how facebook functions...taking these provate moments and making them public...
I have also included the posterized version...which was pretty cool but for my concept i feel the images are stronger without them conveying this idea that 'this really happened'

Trying it out...

So this was my first attempt at trying out the 'comic series' butttt after some feedback from class and also the lecture on the comic book series I have decided to go with more suspense and maybe a twist in the story...not showing every single detail or what is going on in each picture.

I have also decided to change the angles of the photos as these photos get a bit repetitive...and to leave out the text boxes on each page as they don't particularly add anything.

Flickr Group

(Above is some work uploaded to the group that I liked)

I found a group called Photo comic strips...which is a good help for starting off with some sort of narrative and to get a few ideas. Not too sure if i'm going to cartoonise my photos but it's an option...

But i'll be using the fb chat boxes for the dialogue boxes...

Here is my attempt at cartoonising a series...but i think for this project my photos should be snap shot-ish and what you would expect to see on facebook.

Breaking up through facebook...

So I was trying to think of one of those situations where face to face contact should be compulsory! and i thought...breaking up...and I wonder how many people have broken up via text message/email/facebook etc...



The idea i'm trying to put across through this project is how digital technologies have changed our identities by the way we communicate with each other and those closest to us...how our ideas of what is acceptable has changed and how much more bold and honest people are online as opposed to face to face.