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Project 3 Final Statement

The photos of this book all feature my bicycle, which has thankfully held up for the past several years of college. They are meant to show the freedom that this device has afforded me, as well as the city that it has helped me explore. The order of photos has been set up to show a round trip that progresses throughout the day, starting and ending at my home, with photos of the farthest distances being taken closer to noon. and the last few in the evening. These locations all have some significance to me whether they are some place I see on my way to classes every day, a favorite restaurant or the site of an annual event where attendance has become tradition.

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We all have our own groups we’re apart of, whether these are for classes, hobbies, or work. This is even more emphasized in an organization like the U of A where we have a dense, isolated community of students and faculty members. This has allowed for a huge variety of clubs and extra-curricular organizations to exist with a substantial amount of diversity here on campus. This book would look into these individual groups, their meetings, their activities and provide the viewer with a somewhat better understanding of their place within the university community.

Numerous groups could be photographed in order to highlight this diversity, so for example the Ramblers (a hiking club), Physiology groups, engineering clubs, chemistry, ski/snowboarding. All of these could be followed and looked at (with varying degrees of ease). A few pictures would be taken of the members in activities for each of these groups.

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Project 2 Statement

These photographs were meant to be a portrait of someone who is going through a depressive episode. This can mean many different things for different people, but from talking to friends and family who have had to manage their mental health, and reflecting on how these experiences have looked to me, there is a common theme of withdrawal and tendency for actions of self harm (which can take the form of anything from substance abuse, physical damage, or compulsive shopping). These photos are supposed to show some of these themes, as well as a fairly sudden transition to suicidal thoughts and actions.

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Project 2 Proposal 3

The subject of this third portrait would be my girlfriend, who I’ve always seen as a staunchly stubborn person. Some ideas for the photos were of her smashing fruit, standing in front of cars, or running at a wall. I would want to feature something red in each photo, so for example smashing a tomato or a red car.

These would all be for the purpose of portraying her aggressive stubbornness, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I think it shows that she’s a passionate person who is willing to both stand up for what she believes in and fight for her goals. Like the second proposal, she is in Phoenix and it would be difficult to get the photos taken/edited before the due date.

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Project 2 Proposal 2

I’ve always seen my dad as an eccentric and intelligent person and these photos would try and show that. Items that could be included would some of the homemade objects he’s put together from random materials around the house like star trek ships made out of bike gears, or the chess set he made from collected salt and pepper shakers. There’s quite a bit of wooden furniture in my dad’s study where I would want to take the photos, and I would want to emphasize these reddish brown colors as a part of the setting.

By showing my dad doing things like making mini-sculptures, playing chess, or reading I would want to show him as this intelligent person that I see. It comments on both the type of person he is and the type of father he was to me growing up, which adds a personal sense to the project. The only issue with this would be finding time to drive back to Phoenix and take the photos in time for the submission.

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Project 2 Proposal 1

These would be photographs surrounding the subject of depression, particularly the unwillingness to interact with or be a part of the world. The portrait being created would not be of a particular friend, but of friends I have had who have dealt with and endured their own mental health disorders. That being said, the photos would include hints of withdrawal, self harm, and lead up to suicidal actions. The subject could be laying down for some of these to how the unwillingness for activity, and the pictures could include items such as alcohol, or a phone showing a missed call. The setting for the photos would be relatively constant, or at least within the same building.

Ultimately the photos would be a highlight of the state of a depressive mind, not to generalize too much. Any experience I’ve had with either my friends/loved ones depression or bipolar disorders have included these general feelings of withdrawal followed by relatively sudden onsets of suicidal thoughts. That is something I would want to show in this project, that sort of sudden transition from immobilization to sudden suicidal action.

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This book would begin with photographs of structures and areas where there is an obviously substantial amount of money being devoted to upkeep; well paved streets, corporate buildings ext. These would then slowly transition to photos featuring more dilapidated areas of the city, or at least structures that seem kind of run down and out of service. Ex, sewage areas with graffiti, cracked and broken streets/walls, places where litter has started building up. The idea here is to show the disparity between of wealth within the city and our culture in general. These cases often exist within the same immediate area and could even be captured within the same photograph.

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This book would feature photographs that include my bike in every shot. The idea here is showing the ability of travel that objects like bicycles afford us, which can help provide a sense of freedom. It would also be a chance to showcase locations around the city, which again coincides with the theme of liberty.

The shots themselves would start out closer to my home/campus in the morning, and then progressively be taken further away. This would line up with the time of day, so at mid-day the locations would begin to move closer to my home, and eventually wind up back there at sunset. Shots may be taken at the same location twice, but possibly from different perspectives while trying to keep any signifying landmarks in the shot. The bike itself may not be the subject of every photograph, so compositionally they might vary pretty drastically, but it would still be present to tie them together.

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Project 1 Final Statement

The terms utopia and dystopia generally apply to our societies and cultures, but this project was an attempt to apply the same thinking to the natural world (the Tucson desert in this case). From an ecological perspective, environments exist in a general equilibrium with cases of growth, predation, starvation, and symbiosis all working constantly. The organisms living in these environments have gone through millions of years of adaptation which has led to their survival and growth in our local deserts. To them this place is their utopia because there is no other (naturally occurring) environment where they are likely to flourish as well as they do here. The photos taken for this project focused on a decent variety of plant life in order to convey the idea of a balanced ecosystem rather than one species dominating over the others. For every image used, I pushed the saturation of the reds and greens so that growth rather than decay or death is suggested. In most images, I tried to include multiple plants, if not species, again to stretch the idea of a community.

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Project 1 Proposal 3

Utopia: In the past several decades, street art as become more prevalent as an artistic medium and a way for artists to reach a public audience. It can and has been used in many different capacities, from identification, to conveying a message, to simply adding a bit of color to a city a wall. Most importantly though, it is a way for the residents of a city to feel more connected, both to each other and to the environment they share. This would be a series of photos capturing different examples of street art around town, and a way to say that the utopia can be created by a society itself through interconnectivity.

Ideally these photos would include members of the community in front of the works in order to show the relationship between the community and the art. This might not be possible, so highlighting the beauty the works can add to a dilapidated wall would be the next best way of conveying the beneficial aspect of street art. More dynamic angles could be taken of individual works so that the photo becomes slightly more interesting, but this runs the risk of obscuring the art work being captured. A mix of photos could be used to look at one particular piece, which would allow a better representation of the artwork and what it adds to its location.

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Project 1 Proposal 2

Utopia: This would be focused on nature photography of the Sonoran Desert surrounding Tucson. The idea is that utopia can sometimes be found by exiting society, or at least taking a break from it and exploring the natural world around us. It could also apply a biological lens by focusing on plant life in the desert and saying that for these organisms the environment is their utopia (to a degree), due to their own course of evolution.

The particular photos being taken would focus on individual plants, or a few plants growing close together, and not necessarily of the same species. If animals could be included in the photos that would be ideal, but it would be far more difficult to capture any in a well composed shot, given the limited time I would be able to stay on the site. Finding some more vibrant colors would also be ideal, however greens and yellows are likely to dominate the landscape of the desert without many flowers in bloom. In any case, trying to find cases of plants living close together could help provide a sense of commensalism, which could push towards a sense of utopia.

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Project 1 Proposal 1

Dystopia: This would be a series of photos that focused on suburbia and suburban life, particularly the homogenization of architecture and lifestyles that exist within it. Expanding on this, the similarities in households and neighborhoods would hopefully provide an idea of mass production, where these homes lack a history, sense of ownership, or liveliness. A gate from a gated community would also help to reinforce this point by showing that these neighborhoods exist purposefully to remove their inhabitants from the rest of society, and create these stagnant communities.

The photographs themselves would focus on repetition, hopefully by finding multiple houses that are the same or similar next to each other. This could include the base architecture, the color, the front yard, cars out front, or even the inhabitants. A picture that included a gate would have to encompass the neighborhood as well, so even something as simple as taking the photo through two or three of the gate’s bars with the focus on the housing would be effective.

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