Portraits or Not Proposal
For my final project, I would like to explore the Double Exposure technique we learned earlier this year. Our previous project on this style of photography was one of the first ones where I felt grounded. I got to implement my own conceptual ideas and fit them around the method instead of the the other way around, so I was able to take more spontaneous shots. On the other hand, I do not think that I got to explore the method to its full potential because I had not gotten a hang of the type of images I needed nor the best ways to edit the photos to make them look more natural.Thus, I want to pursue Double Exposure in further depth and really make it work in my favor this time around.
Still, the fact of the matter is, I do not have an idea where this project should lead, nor do I particularly want to know. I like to watch things fall into place naturally. Consequently, I decided I would like to leave this up to other people. I remembered doing the interviews during the Portrait Project in DigiPhoto One, and I think I would like to do something akin to that idea with one key change: no portrait needed. Many of the people I am closest to reflexively refuse to take portraits, and whenever a project comes around, I am hard-pressed to find someone willing to stand near my camera. Despite their chronic avoidance, I want to give them a representation of themselves. Maybe not representing their physical presence so much as their thoughts and ideas. I want find out what they do in their free time and why. I want to know what they wonder about, what they want to do in the future. I want to know if they are as aimless as I am. I want to learn these things and sum them up in a photo to give back to them. Since one person has more than one facet, I think that the Double Exposure would work well in this environment. The technique lends itself to mixing the darks and lights of things and people. Depending on how comfortable each person is, I might use silhouettes or a whole new shape I have not even thought of yet. I want to be able to think properly about each person after I talk to them, so I want to limit myself to five 8” x 10” matted shots. Then, I think it would be nice to wrap the matts with newspaper-like material covered with quotes from their interview. Most importantly, I want to this project to be about them.
Other than the portraits in the book about American teenagers and the Double Exposure example in the module, one of visual projects that inspired this idea was Monique’s wedding photography. She seemed very capable of giving people the space they need while depicting them in candid light. I like the idea of using a camera as a lens rather than an obstacle. I like the idea of giving people something that is them, not them with better skin, not them with bigger eyes, just them as they are. I like the idea that they might be okay with that.