So as the semester winds down, all my projects for photography are coming due. We have this big semester project that has to consist of multiple photographs with a common theme. My theme was vulnerability. As I took the photos and I started to edit them, I notice they had a dark over tone to it. If you know me personally, I am normally optimistic, but this project turned into a culmination of what went on in my head over the semester. Let me say this semester has kicked my butt. In this post, I am going to use the photos I used for my semester project and tie that into my past semester. The thing is that the big picture themes that I am touching on, I know that I am not the only one who struggles with these same issues.
The first photo that I am going to talk about is one that I labeled in my folder as "Don't Tempt Me." If I leave this photo up on my monitor and then leave, when I come back I have a mini panic attack when I see this photo. The gun is a photo of an actual gun, that I added a filter over. Then for this one photo, my model was looking right at the camera. All the other shots he never looked directly down the lens, but for this one he did. By breaking that fourth wall, it gives this sense, at least to me, that he is dead serious about pulling that trigger.
The thing is that when we shot this photo, there was no gun. We used a sheet of green cardboard, and I added the gun in later. The photo with the green screen looks a lot less threatening, because that green screen can literally be anything.
Now as I have been showing my friends and teachers this photo, they are wondering why I added the filter to the gun, for it makes it look fake. My theme that I was going for is vulnerability. Majority of people aren't going to openly display their vulnerability. Many people my be holding that green screen outwardly, as if hiding their true intentions. Yet in their head, the thing the general populace can't see, is what is truly going on.
One point I want to get across with this photo, is taking time to understand someone. I never once wanted to commit suicide this semester, but I know people who have thought about killing themselves. On the outside, they look fine, yet once I really knew them, I could see some of the signs. Like how with the green screen, you can see him holding it like he might be holding a gun. The thing is that you need to get to know that person.
They could even be looking straight at you, indirectly telling you that they need help, but if you don't take time to know people, you can just keep glancing on by. The second greatest commandment, is to love your neighbor as yourself. To truly love your neighbor, you need to get to know them more than just what is on the outside. Love is not a surface level emotion, but it is something that penetrates deep with in. You have to get to know the person to reach that deep.
So I know that this didn't really talk about my semester, like I said I would in this post. But I wanted to establish the foundation on actually wanting to understand where a person is coming from, because other wise you are just going to be reading words, that have no meaning. I am going to continue to post periodically throughout the weekend on the other pictures I am using, and I encourage you to come back, and read them, and hopefully learn what it means to love a person for more than what is on the outside.
Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you so much for the photography assignment, and the idea that came only from you, and for my model who did a wonderful job. I pray that this weekend, you speak through me what it truly means to love and care for someone, not just like in a dating relationship, but in any relationship, friendship, family, sibling, ect. Thank you for the medium of photography, and the arts in general as a way to communicate ideas where words fail. Amen.
The first photo that I am going to talk about is one that I labeled in my folder as "Don't Tempt Me." If I leave this photo up on my monitor and then leave, when I come back I have a mini panic attack when I see this photo. The gun is a photo of an actual gun, that I added a filter over. Then for this one photo, my model was looking right at the camera. All the other shots he never looked directly down the lens, but for this one he did. By breaking that fourth wall, it gives this sense, at least to me, that he is dead serious about pulling that trigger.
One point I want to get across with this photo, is taking time to understand someone. I never once wanted to commit suicide this semester, but I know people who have thought about killing themselves. On the outside, they look fine, yet once I really knew them, I could see some of the signs. Like how with the green screen, you can see him holding it like he might be holding a gun. The thing is that you need to get to know that person.
They could even be looking straight at you, indirectly telling you that they need help, but if you don't take time to know people, you can just keep glancing on by. The second greatest commandment, is to love your neighbor as yourself. To truly love your neighbor, you need to get to know them more than just what is on the outside. Love is not a surface level emotion, but it is something that penetrates deep with in. You have to get to know the person to reach that deep.
So I know that this didn't really talk about my semester, like I said I would in this post. But I wanted to establish the foundation on actually wanting to understand where a person is coming from, because other wise you are just going to be reading words, that have no meaning. I am going to continue to post periodically throughout the weekend on the other pictures I am using, and I encourage you to come back, and read them, and hopefully learn what it means to love a person for more than what is on the outside.
Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you so much for the photography assignment, and the idea that came only from you, and for my model who did a wonderful job. I pray that this weekend, you speak through me what it truly means to love and care for someone, not just like in a dating relationship, but in any relationship, friendship, family, sibling, ect. Thank you for the medium of photography, and the arts in general as a way to communicate ideas where words fail. Amen.
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