Sunday, 6 February 2011

Imagination and mystery

This is my second photography blog, for my photography exam, which will make up 40% of my final grade. The theme for this year's paper is 'Imagination and Mystery'. To start it of nicely, I've done two mind maps on both imagination and mystery:



Also throughout the week, I've been taking photos which I think are relevant to the theme of imagination and mystery as a visual brainstorm, to help me think up ideas for my final project. I have supplemented them with some older photos to give more variety, particularly with different seasons and environments:

I like this photo because of the contrasts. You've got the paler, calmer skies contrasting with the darker, more sinister road and skyline. The lines in the sky projected from the airplanes I like for leading the eye across the sky, giving a sense of wonder perhaps, wondering where they could be going.

I really like this photo, it looks reminisicent of a painting, with the soft pallet colours and the swirls of water in the puddles. What makes it appeal most as a mystery photo is the small figure in the distance, lit up against a small area of light forest green. The bareness of the trees also offer an almost sinister touch. Compositionally, the road leads the eye to the figure.

The greatest impact in the this photo is the lighting, the eerie orange light that strongly affects it's surroundings and lights up the dark silhouette of the girl in the centre, walking away from the camera. The empty road and apparent night time scene makes the viewer question her motives in being out so late.

'Joker' feel from Batman to this photo. Brings to mind yin and yang, the dark and good side to everyone, with one side shrouded completely in darkness and the other in a sharp light. The composition of the hand curled menacingly and the hint of a mad smile adds to the tension, and the overall darkness contributes to the creeping sense of danger.

This photo is appealing to the eye, the light draws your eyes with an almost holy aura, with the blurred fence hedge giving a sense of movement. Perhaps the viewer wonders where the camera is going, what it's destination could be.
I love the dark silhouette of the trees against the nighttime sky. It gives a sense of being trapped, with the posture of the trees swaying in the unmoving image like there's a high wind, a theory supported by the leaf flying through the sky. Very mysterious.

The blue tint and the blurred cars give feeling to this image. It tells a story, a boy waiting at a bus stop in the snow, but the snow ridged across the bottom, being taken from a car window, adds a mysterious sinsister nature. Being followed, stalked, watched, it has an uncomfortable context once you look deep enough.

Again, another sinister message, the open door offering a lone figure the opportunity to depart the white, pure world, into a world of danger, of uncertainty. I think the figure works well blurred, standing against the soft white snow. However it could be completely innocent, that's the mystery, since we have nothing else to go on than what's in the photo.

This photo is particularly interesting because the wildlife frames the stark whiteness of the centre. It offers a whole new view point, but again it could be very sinister. The snow again offers a pureness, sheltered from the darkness, but being watched, observed. The figure appears as an innocent victim.

The light coming through the door window lights up the scene, gives contrast and shape to the darker aspects of the photo, like the arms. Contextually it looks like the figure if putting the latch on the door, why? What does she want to be protected from?

Not so much a sense of mystery as previous photos. There's no real story to it that can be seen, perhaps the contrast of old with new? The cobwebs in the corner suggest an unkept, aging scenery left to waste away, while the frost represents newness and purity. Perhaps the mystery is these two factors meeting, and what the photo's motive truly is.

Contextually you wonder where the road is taking you, and certainly the road leads the eye to the dark silhouette of the trees in a nice way. The contrast of dark and light is visually pleasing, and there is a element of mystery about the scene which is overall compelling.






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