Featured image (top) is the final display.
Photos below are organized in the originally intended order of a story:
Display of all the books. This didn’t change from my initial idea. Consist of 3 sketchbooks and 7 Diaries and Journals through the years, as well as some random novels I love, in both English and Chinese. It’s the first picture as it severs to “set the stage” or the theme of the entire series of photographs.
My eyes. When I did my first task a classmate said that my combined love of eyes, books and drawing makes me a very visual person. That’s true.
It might not be very nice that the phone is reflected in my eyes (I did try to edit it a bit). However I like it as a highlight in my eyes, and it’s interesting because the image of my eyes on the phone screen can actually also be seen if scrutinized.
Falling.
Path.
Sinking.
This is one of the first photos I took and it turned out well enough I kept it till the end. The mask is one I got in Vienna (Nope, not Venice.) And I love it’s intricate and artistic detail.
It is a good representation of myself (the reason is personal and irrelevant) yet it also symbolize the characters one can take on while reading (novels in particular). Kind of like hiding from reality in a book by wearing different masks and relating to different characters. Reading is always a solace.
Originally intended to mirror the first photo in terms of set up as well as content, with the addition of the mask. However I’m glad I explored and changed the original composition. The spiral here is much more aesthetically pleasing, and it is meant to generate some sense of being absorbed into the books. Hopefully it’s like falling into the rabbit hole in Alice in Wonderland, as the title of my series might suggest.
Overall I am quite happy with this assignment. I didn’t intend for it to be about books, again (I did that for my portfolio earlier this year) and I didn’t know what mood nor story I was going for. Yet in the end the photos were natural and the dreamy and fantasy mood just…happened. Perhaps it’s subconscious but it so accurately depicts the “in a world of my own” feeling I love when reading. And given the amount of time I spent with books, what other object could be as effective a self-portrait?
My beloved (but neglected @@) guitar.
The amount of bottles I keep. Obviously exploring the “eye” motif again, trying to put my hand in to explore object as an extension of self.
… And I don’t even know what to say about this. It was weird. And difficult to take when I can’t see what I’m doing.
