"Like Flowers, Like Humans"

In the beginning of my project, “Like Flower, Like Human,” I was looking around for inspiration. I had finally found the inspiration I was looking for when I sat down at my desk and just looked down at it. There I saw the rock I got from a High School retreat. When receiving this rock, they told us that these rocks would somehow lead us in a way and we wouldn't expect it when they did. The rock I received had the word inspire engraved on it. This rock somehow got my mind thinking that I could use my rock along with my friends' rocks that they received, in “Like Flower, Like Human.” The idea of these inspirational words engraved on stones, a “hard” object, relates to the fact that it is “hard” to put these words and ideas into action when you are developing as a person. However, we still push through and develop into unique individuals; no one individual is alike, just like flowers. The inspirational words coincide with the flowers showing how we, as people, grow and develop over time and become these well-rounded, beautiful people just as flowers start out as buds, grow and develop into these beautiful things that we decorate our houses with, just like we decorate our lives with beautiful people. Without knowing it we take these ideas of words to grow into the people we become. I've always liked to watch people develop into who they are today and how they change over time, just like flowers. One of my favorite quotes fits perfectly into this project, “Like photography, we develop from the negatives.” This quote is illustrated in my photos. The black and white photo is the negatives and as we develop we gain the color, life, and positives just as the photographs in this project return to color. People develop when they become inspired, have hope for the future, believe in what is going to happen, and trust that everything will work out in the end.

 

Final Project- Work In Progress

My Final Project deals with the idea of how people grow into beautiful people just as flowers grow into these beautiful objects.Without knowing it we take these ideas of words to grow into the people we become. People develop when they become inspired, have hope for the future, believe in what is going to happen, and trust that everything will work out in the end. These words or ideas are set hard to deal with just as stones are, but we still push through and develop into unique individuals, no one individual is alike, just like flowers. With finishing my project, I plan on choosing the 8-10 photos to print and make one large print of a flower and then other small photos of flowers.

I was thinking about making one photo black and white making it look like a negative with the colored photo right next to it just like the saying "Life is like photography, we develop from the negatives," but I'm still not sure if that is a good idea or not. I guess I'd want other people's ideas on this and how they think would be the best way to present this concept.

Andy Grundberg's Crisis of the Real

1.What is postmodernism? 
Andy Grundberg's writing Crisis of the Real I believe when he talks about postmodernism there is multiple definitions. The word postmodernism has many different meanings in different artistic medias. For example, in the field of architecture, postmodernism meant "eclecticism, the use of stylistic flourishes and decorative ornament with a kind of carefree, slapdash, and ultimately value free abandon" (165). In dance, it was "an attempt to throw off the heroicism and expressionism of modernist dance by making dance more vernacular" (165).  In art, postmodernism means "an attack on modernism, an undercutting of its basic assumptions about the role of the art in the culture and about the role of the artist in relation to his or her art" (166). Therefore, trying to make one final definition from all of these cultures into account would be difficult, but if I had to it would be something around this: postmodernism- to do something different than the norm, being free to do whatever the artist pleases, and making the people think about the art you are creating, not just telling the whole story with the photo, let the viewer try to figure out what it means. 

2. How does postmodernism relate to, and challenge, the tradition of photographic practice?
Postmodernism is all about capturing out of the norm objects. Therefore, it challenges traditional photographic practice. Traditional was all about everything staged and able to retake the photo if necessary. However, with postmodernism it was about taking the photos that weren't staged. The ones that showed how people really were, not just how they want everyone to see them. Postmodern photography wouldn't be able to be restage the exact photo, but maybe a look alike. And because photographers wouldn't have a set style with postmodernism then the photographers wouldn't be able to put their signature, or style, on the photograph. However, with postmodern it challenged the thought of traditional photography because traditional photography practices were all about being doing their own thing, but still being within certain norms. But with postmodernism, photographers could take pictures of pictures and be unique in that way, it took ideas from before and expanded on it if not just copied it. Plus with traditional photography people just take the snapshots of things they like and then go on their way. But with postmodernism they went outside the box and took photos of things they liked and things that others wouldn't like as well, just to push the limits and do things outside of the norm.

Final Project Proposal

For my final project I wasn't sure where to start. I was looking around for inspiration. Finally, I sat down at my desk and just looked down at it. There I saw the rock I got from a retreat I went on, in High School. They told us that these rocks would somehow lead us in a way and we wouldn't expect it when they did. Well, my rock said inspire. This rock somehow got my mind working to use my rock and my friends' rocks in this project. I am going to use photos of the inspirational rocks and collage them with photos of flowers that I will take at a florist shop. The inspirational words will coincide with the flowers showing how we, as people, grow and develop over time and become these well-rounded, beautiful people just as flowers start out and are buds and grow and develop into these beautiful things that we decorate our houses with, just like we decorate our lives with beautiful people. I've always liked to watch people develop into who they are today and how they change over time, just like flowers. People develop when they become inspired, have hope for the future, believe in what is going to happen, and trust that everything will work out in the end.

Phone Reactions

In the photos that I took, I tried to show that when people get text messages that their faces change. Whether the text be a cute one from your significant other, a text that makes no sense at all, or maybe even a text that is completely dumb. However, because this was a fiction project I had to ask the people to look at their phones and act like they are responding to a text. When I told people to make a face reacting to a text, some were unsure and did not know what to do, some even refused to participate in my project. Most of my participants were good sports and made some great faces, but others seemed to just look at their phones and be Debby Downers. That is okay though, because for some of the faces I was able to catch made up for the plain Jane faces.

I tried to capture the emotions that can come out while reading a text. However, this was a little more difficult than I thought it would be. I did not just want pictures that were face on and looking straight at the subject. I wanted to get the phone in the photo and see the reaction as well. At first I started taking pictures at different angles from above and below, but then I realized that when I am photographing from above the subject I cannot fully see their reaction but I can see that there is no text on the phone. Therefore, it would not actually work for my project. I continued to take pictures, but instead I tried to get below my subjects for from angles that I could see the reaction but not see the screen of the phone.

When I first started this project I was trying to capture my dogs like they were fighting over a cardboard sub and chips, a sign I took home from work with me from Subway. They were going to both be licking the food, but then my Yorkie was going to start a fight with my Sheltie and end up killing her. I was excited to try to capture this, but when it came time to take the photos my dogs would not cooperate with me. The Sheltie loves the camera and just wants to be happy in front of it, while the Yorkie gets scared and runs. That's when I came up with the reactions to the texts. I decided to put a phone in front of the dogs to see what they'd do. I even put a piece of sausage on my phone to get my dog to look like she was looking at it! I got the scared expression from my Yorkie while she hid under the table and I quick put my phone in front of her to get the picture. This is how my new idea for my project started out. Funny what can become inspirational.