Proposal

Project Idea

Throughout my time at Columbia this past year I have been enduring a great deal of stress and anxiety. My problems with procrastination just add to the problem. It’s eating me up inside, and every day I’m feeling a great inner-tension. I want to attempt to explore this tension that is making my insides wrap around each other.

In this exploration I will channel my inner unrest into a series of still lives. These still lives will consist of normal objects, sometimes including human interaction with them. But, through careful selection, I’ll be deliberately placing my objects into the still life in order for them to interact in a way to recreate this terrible tension and anxiety. I’ve had a photograph I’ve wanted to take for a while in mind; a cut of meat which is being cut with a steak knife while on top of somebodies hand, this will take place on top of a bright yellow surface. I do have some concerns/questions with this project. I’m worried I will run out of ideas to recreate this tension out of. Also, are we limited to shooting on a 35mm film format?

Compositional Strategies

I will approach my images using mainly symmetrical balance and other times no balance at all in order to create an elevated sense of tension between objects. Deep DOF, most photos will be shot straight on at the subject. I will be using tight compositions in order to allow the subject to fill most of the frame. I feel like I can’t be that specific in this area of my proposal, because I can use many different compositional strategies throughout this project as long a they lend themselves to the particular photograph. I do understand that I will also be trying to create a common aesthetic throughout the series.

Quality of Light

Photographs will be shot using a high powered, Vivitar 285hv flash, mounted my cameras hot shoe. This method of using light will give the images more contrast and make them more confrontational.

Color Theory

I’ve been reading a bit about color psychology and along with carefully choosing my objects for these still lifes, I will carefully shoes what colors interact within the objects and the background. I spy a lot of yellow.