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TASK 1
Object and representation of self

This simple cheap ring was bought from those places that rented out boxes for people to sell their products. Why would something as plain and normal be something of significance to me? It’s because my grandmother gave it to me as a random gift.

A simple plastic ring made up of a twisted arrow.

My grandmother is very dear to me, she’s been taking care of me since I was born and I can’t imagine growing up without her. She’s been a constant part of my life, every day and every night I greet her and say goodnight. It’s the little things that show genuineness.

Wistful.

It’s kind of silly but the feeling of having this constant on my index finger comes off really comforting to me. I fidget a lot. I have a terrible habit of picking at my fingers, even when I’m not nervous or anything at all. The ring? It helps a lot, I end up toying with it, twisting, pulling off and putting it on whenever I’m trying to focus. While it does act as a great fidgeting tool, it does unwind me. Life is stressful, sometimes it’s just nice to sit and contemplate things you know? A long look, an unconscious twist, it makes me reminisce and think about what I could be doing better, or even just to relax and revel in past memories. Super glad I haven’t dropped it into a random drain with my fumbling fingers.

A constant.

Inspired by Rengim Mutevellioglu’s nostalgia-inducing photographs, I attempted to bring out the sentimentality in my own photos with what I learnt by studying her work.

For the general look, I used muted tones and this controlled contrast that’s present consistently in her photos. The overall contrast of the photos aren’t too strong, but when it comes to shadows, they get darker and harsher. It creates this old, vintage look that tugs at your nostalgia.

The 2nd shot’s a full body interaction shot. The perspective lines from the roof of the shelter and the path point towards me and the ring, bringing attention. By positioning myself towards one half of the shot, it leaves a void, a space that feels like longing.

The final shot is a close up interaction shot, with the ring as the point of interest. Wanting to create the illusion of movement, the hand is angled a little as it tangles slightly in my hair, but the ring remains a still constant in the shot. It stands out, being in the central position, contrasted by the shadowed background.

 

TASK 2
My World

Fuchun Primary School, where I started growing into my own shell. This place probably houses all my earliest prominent memories, it was an eventful kid life. Fun fact! The school in these photos isn’t actually my ‘first’ school. I spent half my primary school life in the older school, which still rests at the same place, deserted and so worn down. My remaining 3 years were in this one instead.

The ol’ hang out.

It’s the weekend; school’s out, students out. Nobody’s in or even around the school, it was serene and so quiet in comparison to the lively, chaotic weekdays. This spot was the void deck opposite the main gate that students liked loitering and chilling at.

Repainted, renewed.

I realised I never actually saw the school clearly from afar before, so I went up to the highest floors of the surrounding HDB flats to check the view. It didn’t hit me until then that the school had actually renovated slightly and has a new paint job! The bright colours are so modern and fresh, it bittersweetly reminded me just how many years has passed since I graduate from there.

Quiet.

The neighbourhood rests, along with everyone else. It’s extremely relaxing by simply watching the clouds float idly by with these sentimental buildings filling my sight. I’ve been in this neighbourhood for my whole life, and honestly I haven’t felt so soothed and calmed here. I should do this more often.

Architectural and scenic photographs are very intriguing to me, especially the way Arkos Major shoots his. Trying and hopefully, successfully, incorporating his lighter yet also muted tones into my own photos, I managed to make the shots feel nostalgic and a bit more personal.

The 1st shot was taken in a tilted lower angle to show more of the bottle and how the school is ‘away’ in the background, since the focus is how this is a place students spent time outside of school, after school.

2nd shot was simply to show a bird’s eye view of the school, this colourful yet old, sentimental space holding many memories. The added ledge as the foreground made it more visually pleasing.

Last shot is a flat shot, showing just a lining of buildings and the nearby foresty area, the top stretching wide with a cloudy blue sky. This conveys more of the underlying emotions. It’s a peaceful, slower moving neighbourhood, like the clouds.

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For this particular assignment, since we are supposed to take photographs of things and places that are of significance to us, I’ve settled on focusing on bringing out the sentimentality. Before jumping to shooting for the project, I did some research for inspiration!

RESEARCH

RENGIM MUTEVELLIOGLU

http://www.rengim.com/shoots

http://www.rengim.com/shoots

Rengim’s photos have this unmistaken feeling of amenity, a soft kindling of something nostalgic with her usage of duller, muter tones. With these comforting colours, it truly expresses the softness of sentimentality.
The depth of view and chiaroscuro effects are combined seamlessly, making the photographs seem untouched and pure.

I really enjoyed browsing through her gallery, every piece had its very own unique warm, content feeling.

AKOS MAJOR

http://www.photographyoffice.com/blog/2014/9/minimalist-waterscapes-by-akos-major-photography

http://www.designstudio210.com/2013/05/on-the-wall-photographer-akos-major/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Akos had an eye for minimalistic shots that showed little, without losing its impact. Looking at his photographs, you just feel so serene and at peace. There’s not much happening usually, but the flatness and negative spaces he leaves gives this feeling that hey, there’s much more but this is what you see, and you will feel calmed.

Similar to Rengim, he uses slightly weaker tones and hues too, maximising the feeling of peace and quiet sentiments.

PROCESS

All I used for this assignment was my trusty Samsung S8+ camera and a friend as a tripod! (thanks man)
I’ll mostly be editing the lighting and a little of the hues with Photoshop after selecting the final 3 photos for each task.

For Task 1, I chose a ring my dearest grandmother bought for me from those rental box shops! It’s nothing much, but it means a lot to me.

CLOSE UPS

Close up test shots of the ring. I used a background that contrasted with the ring, especially since it’s a tiny object, I wanted it to pop out and avoid blending and disappearing from the viewer’s focus.

FULL BODY with the object

Full body shots ended up being mostly fail shots as my chosen object is way too small to be seen or focused on in these shots. But I still tried to convey the feeling of sentiment from the posing, although not proving to be as effective as the object of interest isn’t really obvious.

FULL BODY interacting with object

Similarly to the earlier full body shots, the ring is really small in the photos. However, compared to the earlier shots, with the simple act of interacting with the ring, it shows that there’s actually something there for the viewer to see.

MID-RANGE
 

Mid-range shots have a slightly more personal feeling. With the closeness but not too close either, it gives off this feeling of understanding.

These shots worked better in showing the nostalgic emotions, hopefully making some sort of a subtle connection between photo and the person viewing.

 

 

CLOSE UP of interacting with object

The close up interaction shots gave decent results I felt. They just felt way closer, personal and it really brings the ring into focus.

The ring is shown clearer and minor actions and details and be seen and portray some expression and maybe a little implication of a story?

After looking through all the shots, I prefer the full body interactive ones the most, but I’ll edit them and see how it all turns out!

 

 

For Task 2, I went to my primary school and the general neighbourhood area around it.

As it was a weekend when I went to take these photos, the school was obviously closed. It was really quiet and I couldn’t really get in to shoot. So I improvised and just went around taking photos of the routes and places I used to go or just hang around at.

I went up a few HDB blocks trying to take some top down shots of the school and the neighbourhood and I’m glad the weather that day was really nice.

All in all, some of the shots ended up a little off, with the emotion not being conveyed properly, being blurry, odd angles that just didn’t work out. But they were all just learning points in the end, and a few turned out decent enough for post processing, so there’s that. It was a little hard taking photos with just a phone and no actual tripod but with what I have, I’ll have to make do!