TASK 1: ME
We were tasked to creatively introduce ourselves using 3 photographs and the concept behind these photos came quite naturally. I thought hmmm creative… why not incorporate something that I enjoy doing, handicraft to introduce myself?
For the first photo, I purposely hid something underneath a random mess of lace in which the item is later on revealed in the last image. With the soft and dainty feel of the lace and something hidden, I was trying to portray my introverted personality.
Following which, the second photo is a direct representation of materials that I usually use with the intention wanting to try out flat lay and I took reference from and was inspired after looking at this website: https://www.enlightapp.com/blog/7-fantastic-tips-for-fabulous-flat-lay-photography/
And in the last photo it shows me working on a handicraft piece. I reveal myself with a literal representation of my name, the object that was hidden under the pile of lace in the first photo while not forgetting to express my introvertness still by doing a over the shoulder shot, hiding my face from the camera, shying away.
TASK 2: OBJECT AND REPRESENTATION OF SELF
This set of photos revolves around an object that is of significance to me and it would be this patchwork quilt that was handmade by my paternal grandmother who I never got to meet. She passed on the very same year I was born and the quilt was later passed to me from my parents when I was told The Story.
Through the images I wanted to show my feelings for the object (the quilt) and personally I feel that it is synonymous with the feeling of protection. One of the photos compositions being me hiding behind the quilt to portray my fear of thunder and lighting, how I would hide under it whenever it strikes especially since I sleep alone. While the other photo portrays my longingness, me missing my grandmother. I felt that it was a pity that I was not able to meet her.
Recalling the feedback from my peers during the critique session, what I could have done better for this set was by showing the stitches of the quilt rather than taking a full shot of the quilt for the first photo since I mentioned that the quilt was a symbol of love to me as every patch was painstakingly sewn together to form the quilt. I wanted to show the beauty of it.
TASK 3: MY WORLD
The final set of photos came about with the idea of wanting to give the audience a glimpse into my everyday life, a 360-view of the surroundings and sights around my HDB estate. Especially since I grew up in this HDB estate for 10 over years and I walk by these areas everyday as I go to and fro from school or when going out and these areas in particular are meaningful to me.
The first spot – The corridor I walk down everyday without fail. Something unique about my level’s corridor is that it’s the floor with the most number of potted plants. My neighbours, even my family included are avid “gardeners”. They would sometimes exchange their plant seedlings and all, it’s a really nice gesture.
The second spot – The open area at the lift lobby. As my block is structured in a way that the balcony of the apartments are facing each other, it creates a triangle open area whereby when the sunlight is able to enter and cast light on the walls of the block. I felt that it was a beautiful sight and wanted to capture it. It brought out the architectural beauty of the block.
The third spot – The HDB void deck. In this photo is one out of the three void deck cats that moved in several years ago and every day without fail, there will be this lady who comes by with her red trolley and cat food to feed these cats. The lady is captured in the background, off focus. So happen it was their feeding time that day as I was going around to get shots for the assignment. Caught the “The Golden Hour”! 🙂
The final spot – The Resident’s Corner which I would walk past everyday without fail on my way to the bus stop as I make my way to school in the morning/afternoon. Usually in the mornings, around 10am, there will always be this same group of aunties that gather here for their daily chit-chat session which I found really amusing. They are really friendly and would greet me every time I walk by.
I enjoyed photographing for this task the most as these are places around my HDB block that I walk by everyday but only got to realise the beauty of these spots when doing this particular task.
DOCUMENTATION AND LEARNING/TAKEAWAY POINTS
Photo Cr: Xuan Fei
Presentation layout for in-class critique session
Here’s the documentation of the photos displayed on the wall along the hallway during the critique session yesterday and to sum up the project, some takeaways.
Through feedback from by my peers and Lei, I think I could better improve on layout especially for Task 3 by having the open area photo placed at the top to balance out the colours of the other images as that particular photo was very jarring in a way that made it stood out from the rest. Suggestion given was that I could have made it the first photo of the series to create a smoother top-down viewing in terms of contrast.
Paying attention to tactility and that my photographs focused a lot on textures – This was something that I did not realise recurring across my photographs until Lei pointed it out to me, linking that it’s probably got to do with my love for handicraft. Guess the observer sees one the clearest haha…
All in all, I really loved how this assignment allowed us to get to know each other better through the photographs we took. There’s a story behind each and everyone’s photos and probably my biggest takeaway from this project would be how photographs are magical. They’re able to tell a story like they say, “A picture is worth a thousand words”.
Till today, I’m still amazed by the power of photography.
