Assignment 3: Change – photo essay
Alright man! finally i did something good with photography… Before i went out to take shots, i kept thinkin and thinking how the hell am i suppose to capture Change. This was perhaps the most mind-boggling assignment yet.
Initial idea: to capture Change in a woman’s life. – i thought of capturing a little girl, a teenage girl in uniform doing something, woman at her wedding, a pregnant lady, a mother holding her child, a grandma, etc. But then it was just too difficult to capture all that in such a short time. If i did successfully manage this, i will give myself 100 for effort man…
Then for a while i was stuck. Perfect example of a photographer’s block. hmm… so when i was at work one day (at Ponggol Marina), i just saw alot of corroding things here and there. “Bench”, “Metal”, “Chain” and “Rope” were all taken at this place.
“Window”, “Pipe”, “Wall” and “Wheel” were taken in Little India. When i was talking to Paul, he told me that its difficult to think so much about a theme and go out to ‘purposely’ take shots on it. It really about going out to explore, while still keeping the theme in mind- coz it subconsciously gets to you, and the results are often seen only when you go home to your computer to check the photos. Indeed the words of a wise man.
About ’Corrosion’- the photo essay goes in this order:
Bench: Often people try to stop change. Like painting over things; yet change is seen with time as the paint peels and the original form is revealed.
Metal: Sometimes we become overwhelmed with the rate of change. It is so in-your-face it becomes unsettling.
Chain: Even the strongest of material and bonds are subjected to corrosion.
Rope: And finally it breaks. We can’t fight with time.
Window: Other times, we find ourselves trapped in change. We may not want things to change, but the world doesn’t care.
Pipe: The life around us dies with the material things. The pipe it eating away… and the flowers fall along with it…
Wall: Again, we try to paint over the blemishes, the cracks. Its embarrassing. Nature instead embraces change.
Wheel: At the end of the day, we need to realise even though the core is rusting, we still have to move along…
How i rate myself…
perhaps, 97/100 this time round (45 for effort, 52 for creativity). I do feel that my work is very simple and straightforward. Comparing mine to Paul’s dual works (both the people and the objects one), and Ivy’s, theirs is like in different leagues altogether i must say. I really enjoy Paul’s style, cos we seem to like taking the same kinda things, but his work is very artistic and the composition is very ’him’. Ivy’s too is so well-thought through and deep. They get 99 and 100 from me respectively.
I like Jillyn’s idea of Corrosion too. quite similar to my idea, except that its very interesting to see how we all capture different things. I especially like her fish photo (haha.. sorry Mr Reddy) because liek what she said, even though we think its fresh fish, the fact that they’re dead brings the concept of deterioration. I’d give her 95/100 (40 for effort, 5o for creativity).
There are some other works which seem to fall short of the requirements of the assignment but are great as individual photos! I’m thankful that i kept the theme in mind throughout this process. It took awhile to get my 8 photos to have a sense of unity amongst them. It was only after i arrange dthe photos that i realise they the colours actually tie them tighter together! (Whites, orange, purple and bluish-green)… Thanks Mike and Paul for your comments and you both for your mounting help!!!
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