Final Assignment

The theme for my final assignment is : The Pimple.

As funny as it may sound, I believe that everyone has experienced the nasty feeling of being plagued by a pimple outbreak.

Hence, the concept behind this piece of work aims to portray how people react to their pimple.

When you were young, you were nonchalant about your physical appearance. After eating ice cream and spreading it all over your mouth, all you could do is to run to your mom and say "Mommy...what's that red thing on my face?" Having a red spot did not mean much to you. You laugh when you are happy, cry when you are sad. Your packet of candies was far more important and precious to you than that red thingy...







































When you grow older, beauty was your life. You start to develop many pimples during your puberty. You get irritated by that thing on your face...How are you going to face your friends!? Or that cute guy/girl in your class?






































Having been on this world for 50 years, you have seen and experienced many things in life. From your marriage, family to your career. But who can forget that pimple. Does the importance attached physical appearance still persist? Or the occasional breakouts remind you of the times when you were insecure of your physical appearance. Maybe the worries seemed so futile now.






































The comments given by the class were

• The pimple needed to be more obvious
• The second picture seemed too similar to the last two when they were supposed to portray another emotion
• Try placing the pimples at different location on the face
• The face on the fifth picture is too big as compared to the rest

The pictures after reshooting:

What I can say is that: Shooting children is hard!!! First you need to play with them to gain their trust. Next you will have to be constant alert to find the best time to capture a shot. The lighting was bad as it was in an indoor hall. My friend had to distract the little boy with her palmtop in order for me to take a picture of him doing something instead of looking at my camera with a big smile...






































The comments given during the session critique session were

• The colour of the photographys could be futher desaturated to make the pimple more obvious
• The palmtop was not obvious not enough hence he looked that he was staring out of the frame
  

Ethics

What are the ways readers can judge the credibility of an image even in this age of digital manipulation?

Personally I think it is almost an impossible task to judge if an image has been processed before presentation. I guess this is the reason why cosmetics are selling well in the market. It is a promise from the company to deliver to the purchasers a perfect complexion although most of the time we know that it is impossible. But why do we still buy into it? I personally believe that finding the right product for yourself is a matter of trial and error rather than the promise delivered by the company.

Probably critical thinking can be a way to mitigate the effect generated by photo manipulation. Even in the area of journalism, we know that news are not facts and they can be bias in their portrayal of events. Hence, it is best to gather a variety of sources and compare them before deciding if an image is real.

We also need to resort to fate and be convinced that there is no external youthfulness that lasts a lifetime. How on earth can a bottle of product which cost a mere 10 over or 20 over bucks gives you a perfect complexion just like the celebrity who endorses it. In an article I read a few years back, a celebrity admitted that she was not as slim in reality as the image of her in the slimming advertisement.

Imagine yourself as a reader representative for a newspaper. What would you tell a reader who complained to you about a picture of a car wreck that was particularly upsetting?

To answer this question, I guess as a ethical newspaper publishing company, it should not use pictures of extreme gore and violence in its publications.

However, in the case of a complain, I would firstly apologise and then inform the person who filed the complain that the picture is an accurate portrayal of the accident that occurred. It was used because we wanted to be as objective as possible. If the wreck was upsetting in the first place, the picture will inevitably capture the mood.

Assignment 5 'Human Expressions'

The aim of this assignment is to portray human emotions without photographing humans or animals. I would say this is my favorite exercise despite having to crack my brain thinking of what I can photograph to portray the given emotions. However, I realised that the surroundings are full of inspirations. Colour too is important in helping to accurately depict emotions.




















The purpose of this photo is to depict progressive and advancing. The use of a building under construction is to communicate the unfinished work that needs to be done, hence more progression is needed. The patterns of the clouds are use to show the upward direction the building is heading towards.

Comment given was that to retake the picture from the bottom of the building to create an illusion of convergence and grandeur.














The purpose of this picture is to depict joyfulness. It was taken at the playground. Vibrant colours were used to further enhance the joyful mood. A slow shutter speed was used to capture the motion of the red object in the foreground to depict action and liveliness of the playground.














I think that the idea behind this image is obvious- loneliness. The single bed signifies that there is only room for one. Its owner does not have a partner. Sepia is used to create a mood of nostalgia whereby the owner of the bed continues to think about her deceased husband by displaying his photo in her room.














If I were to name this picture, it will be 'Peace at the 38th Parallel'. This picture was taken near the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea. After the long history of wars and chaos between the USSR and the American troops, peace was finally established when the line at the 38th parallel was drawn to divide Korea into the North and South hemispheres. The sunset in the background against the bluish sky signifies peace and serenity in contrast to the military guardhouse in the foreground. It aims to spread the message that even in times of disagreement and dispute, the same sunset could still be shared between people with differences. It is the object which bind us together, reminding that we are still united because we are similar in one race- the human race.

Surrealism

Image by Ray Man


I personally feel that this is a very powerful image of a woman.This image seems to communicate the concept of post feminism whereby feminine sexuality is no longer a burden to females but a form of control over males. The model in the image is comfortable and confident of her body. Her hair seems to resemble a crown of fire. Her identity is not known due to the manipulation done to the photo. We are not sure what creature she was supposed to represent but she seems to embody a feminine figure yet full of authority, power and a stronghold over her male counterpart.

I found another surrealistic photo on the internet


















http://gk-photo.blogspot.com/2008/03/photo-friday-surreal_12.html


I feel that this image exhibits the same kind of feminine authority similar to the same picture. It seems to embody the idea of 'Mother Nature' since it consist of a female body made up of a mixture of elements, both man made and natural.

Analyzing a Picture

http://www.photojournalism.org/2007%20images/web/contest/singles/source/general_newshm4.htm

This picture depicts the execution process of 5 criminals in Iran. There are 2 different groups of people in which this picture is speaking to. They are the citizens of Iran and the outsiders (meaning us).

Firstly, this picture aims to deter the Iranians against crimes. It is telling them they might be subjected to public execution if they engage in deviant acts. Public execution does not solely mean death, but utter public humiliation even before death. The criminals are subjected to negative evaluation by the audience present at the execution site. They are not the only ones suffering from humiliation, but this shame will be also brought on to their family members.

Secondly, this picture speaks to us, viewers via the internet. It informs us that in this modern era of vivid pushes for democracies and human rights, there is a small corner on earth where public execution is still being legitimized and practised. Public execution has a long history since ancient times. Women were stoned for even just suspected acts of adultery. Hence, as an outsider, we wonder if this act should be continued. If not, what power do we have to stop it?

I think that it is commendable of the photographer to exclude the faces of the criminals in his photo. Firstly, it is to protect the identity of the offenders as well their family members. Secondly, including the faces of people who are hanged might be highly disturbing. The photographer provides a space the viewers to imagine the un-captured and not using violence are gore to capture and retain attention.

Natural sunlight was used in this picture, this further enhance the fact that it was shot outdoors. This just remind us that this picture depicts public execution and not a private one which brings us back to the point of deliberate humiliation and to deter the public not to engage in crimes.

I feel that texture could have been added to further enhance the effect of the picture. Fine grain could be use to portray the importance and urgency of this issue to be addressed by the international stage.

The angle of view used for this picture is of an on looker. This shows that the photographer was equal status with the rest of the crowd.

The photographer engaged in sharp focus for this picture. Everything in the picture is in focus, without having objects being blurred out. I guess this technique is used because everything in the photo is of equal importance. From the crowd of people surrounding the criminals to the elements on the bodies of the latter itself. The thing which I noticed was the chains on the legs of the bodies. Although they are mere elements in the pictures, they signify a tremendous of meanings and connotations. To me, it means imprisonment even after life.

Singapore Biennale 2008

The exhibition was interesting as it was held separately at various locations, each generating a different atmosphere unique to the locality.
Since there was not a general theme to bind the different exhibits together, each has its own anomalous message to convey to the audiences. Many of the exhibits also allow interaction with the audiences. Hence, one need not be highly educated to enjoy and appreciate the pieces. It is art for the general masses. =)And it is cool that we can visit the interior of the old supreme court!

Amongst all the exhibitions, my favourite piece is:

At the first glance, I was overwhelmed by the massive numbers of flowers on the ground. Initially I thought that they were craved out of paper. However, I over heard a guide saying that 11 000 of them were made out of steel and then each was carefully hand painted. Imagine the scale and the time taken to complete all of them. Moreover sand was also carefully embedded amongst the flowers, which means that the artists also spent much effort at the exhibition site even after the completion of the flowers. The exhibit gave us with another surprise when we walked over to its other side. The back of the flowers were painted black, creating a clear and distinctive shape. I feel like if we zoom out and look at them collectively, they look like a piece of graphical art on the floor.

The piece which I personally could not understand and appreciate was
To me, the exhibits conveyed a sci-fi feeling, hence it seemed weird to be perched on top of the supreme court.I was unsure of the connection between the white circular structure and the aliens like figures.

Surrealism: Urban Fantasy

Surrealism???

Most of us having no background in artistic concepts had a hard time grasping the concept... is it this?...or that? is it a composition of elements that are real, but arranged in a way that makes it unreal?
Nevertheless, this is my attempt at a surrealism piece:

The concept behind is this piece is:
A young girl's fantasy of her favourite dolls which takes place in a urban setting. The dolls have just awaken from their sleep. The paradox is that the dolls have become humans and the buildings are their toys.

I got this concept from Godzilla. However, firstly I do not have a Godzilla toy and secondly I did not really want to symbolise doom.

The technical work involved were:

• Taking pictures of the building and the dolls. It was tedious as I have to estimate an appropriate angles to place the dolls. It took me three tries to get them right.

• Next was tracing the building and MRT tracks into paths so that I can copy and paste and to change the colour of the sky.

• I have to crop out the dolls from their white background
  

• I used the brushes available in photoshop for the stars.

• I blurred out the frontmost and backmost dolls to create an effect of different depth of field and the focus will only be on the doll in the purple pajamas.

• Finally, I took some pictures of my white polo tee to add a layer of texture on the piece to create a 'fabric' feeling which symbolise softness of the blanket.

Comments given by the class and Ms Chiang were:

• The sky resembles the national flag...red and white? Probably I got to change the colour
• The major problem with the piece is the lack of interactions between the dolls and the building
• Need to reduce the size of the buildings to make them more toy like/ or to change their colours to resemble lego buildings
• the picture is too dark
• I could use more real elements like cars and trains
  
• Could add some details to the dark MRT tracks
  

After the first tutorial, I decide that it would be rather impossible to add in interactions between the dolls and their surroundings since the figurines were fixed. Hence, I employed another set of dolls and a new background. Although it is a new piece of work, but the underlying concept remains.

The concept is still about a girly fantasy with the personification of the dolls. Instead of using a cloth texture, I overlay the entire image with a picture of bubbles. I blurred the two dolls in the foreground so as to direct viewers to focus their attention on the doll at the back. The image of the river taxi was duplicated and they were made to float in the air, enhancing the surreal and unrealistic aspects.



























Some comments were

• Viewers focus firstly on the doll on the left before looking at the rest of the image, which defeat the purpose of directing them to view the doll at the back by blurring
  
• I read somewhere that readers generally read from left to right, hence probably this is the reason who the doll on the left gets noticed first
• The blurring of the ships was not obvious enough