final project concept statement

Throughout the semester, my work has had a consistent theme of American ignorance. Specifically speaking, the ignorance most Americans have (myself included) about the greed that we show literally kills others. Sweatshops are a prime example. Our fashion, our ego comes with a price. Our living in the way that society teaches us to live literally depends on the pain of someone else. On an even larger scale, most Americans (once again, myself included) do not understand the consequences of the “war on terror.” We are the terror. We have killed thousands upon thousands of innocent people to protect ourselves, and more importantly, our money. Many Americans take the standard religion of America, Christianity, and try to use it as justification for violence. Ironically, this is bringing hell to earth. Many Americans believe that God’s only interest is to bless America, and based on this belief, it is understood that killing others in the name of religion is almost becoming something holy. This idea of religion scares me, and I am afraid that this kind of religion will become our own apocalypse.

            In reaction to these trends in society that I have noticed, I plan to build an American shrine. The medium will be a collage of photographs, paint, drawings, and objects on a wooden frame, approximately 2ft by 3ft. The background of the collage will include wallet size photographs of the red white and blue heaven and hell project we did earlier in the semester. They are meant to be a subtle reference to the everyday ignorance of Americans. The photos will be arranged to look somewhat like buildings, which will be taller on the left and right sides of the collage. In the center of the shrine, a figure that looks somewhat like Jesus will be collaged out of advertisements (specifically of corporations that define America). He will have a golden halo, and he will have a gun strapped around his body, and instead of a typical holy pose, he will cover his face with his hands. Crosses that look like the military graveyard crosses will also be scattered around his feet. I am also debating on using some kind of lights on the project, I originally wanted this to be an installation, with someone playing Jesus and having him wrapped in Christmas lights. I would like to incorporate the light idea into the collage somehow. I might just use flashy papers, and shiny things. I want this collage to look overdone, almost tacky. I want it to look greedy with the amount of things used to make it what it is, because this is what I believe defines America.

            I think it is important to expand on my previous statement of American motives. At the risk of sounding overly dramatic, I would like to show through this collage that the killing is not only taking place overseas, we are killing ourselves at home. We have become slaves to our “religion,” whether that religion is based on a God and another world, or in a holy dedication to Wal-mart and Starbucks. Ultimately, I want this shrine to be ironically hard to ignore. 

painting on photoshop...

revised concept for hole book

CONCEPT: The subjects in the photographs are directly addressing the viewer, even though they are doing this, a veil, a divider is between the people and the viewer. The photographs begin with the veil completely covering the faces of the individuals, and gradually the veil fades away until the photographs end with the last subject covering her face with her hands, without the veil. In order to depict these subjects as connected, the holes are on their clothing. The holes are on textiles until the last photograph, where the subject is naked. Her nakedness, and her covering her face with her hands makes her the contrast to the rest of the people. This contrast deals with the idea of perceiving people through a veil, a pre-made stereotype. The connection between the characters is something material (clothing), a form of a literal veil. When both veils are removed, the subject is viewed as almost unidentifiable, as she is covering her face with her hands. The subject without clothing or a veil is representing a sort of identity crisis, it is only the subject, no coverings, no distinct ways of identification. 

the next four pages (and some redos)

ta da (try one)

okay, so here are the first 4 pages. I don't know how I feel about either the small square hole or the rainbow-ish overlays. I might try some blurred lights instead. I'm also thinking of adding some thin off-white ish drawings over the color layer.

i'm still not sure...

I really want to do photographs like these...and I want to incorporate the hole in page idea

into a very close up face shot like this. So I was thinking that I could have several people photographed from the exact same spot, so that all of their faces are about the same size, and then maybe I could cut a square hole right over the eyeball of the person, and then they would all be connected. or i could cut a rectangular shaped hole where their mouths are...i really haven't decided much other than that I want to shoot multiple people's faces pretty close up and layer colors over then and connect them in some way. 

statement for personal propaganda

After I finished 5 of the simple way text and image assignments, I was kind of bored, so I decided to do 5 for personal reasons. I was thinking along the lines of 1984 and of humans being controlled in a machine-like-assembly-line fashion. I was thinking of propaganda posters, I wanted to have really bossy text juxtaposed with a thought provoking image. I also wanted to have a contrast between the strict black and white image with the almost obnoxious rainbow colors...I was thinking along the (cliché i admit) lines of individuality versus factory like copies. 

I keep thinking about the idea of ignorance and its relation to american culture, in these images i attempt to expand on that idea.    

NEW IDEA

okkkkaaaay...so i think that i got the assignment totally wrong....

here's my new idea:

i am going to work for the simple way-a group of people who call themseleves "ordinary radicals" and who are working to live in a way that is completely different from the mainstream consumerism that we are taught.  They live as a community in inner city philly, they share everything, and they work to share everything they have with the poor, and they do it under the mantra " to love God. to love people. to follow Jesus" so in making work about a group of people like those in the simple way, i immediately think of juxtaposing the simple with the much more complex, or of contrasting the idea of nature and man-man made...When I think of the word "simple" i think of the colors blue, green, black and white. And when I think of complexity, I think of a chaos of colors and shapes. I plan on juxtaposing these two ideas over text that either reads "the simple way" or "simple, not easy" "ordinary radicals" 

client statement

I think that I want to keep Burke's as my client. I liked the direction some of my images were going. Okay, the main thing that I want to communicate through my images is idea of people forgetting about the real world and getting completely into a book. I think that this idea can be achieved with the juxtaposing of people and characters of a book. maybe I could do more with text on a book, for example, if i have a character reading alice in  wonderland, maybe I could make the character look like the mad hatter or alice, etc. or maybe I wouldn't have to make the person I am photographing look EXACTLY like the character in a book, maybe just hints at becoming like a character, like losing yourself in a book is a process. Compositionally, I like the centeredness of the characters with the books in front of their faces. Maybe I could experiment with the location of the characters, I could make that a juxtaposition. For example, I could have someone reading something really exciting in a really boring environment. I was also thinking of juxtaposing black and white with color, maybe putting the characters in color, but the backgrounds in black and white. I really can't decide what exact direction to be going with this, but I feel like I have quite a few options. As far as text goes, I want to say something along the lines of "Because the real world is boring..." and have the different characters reading outlandish imaginative stories. There's a lot of indecisive happening here, so any ideas are more than welcome. :) 

BOOK FREAKS

okay, so here are the images for Burke's books. I feel like I could have played up the quirkyness of the characters, maybe using more of their faces, or placing them in a less linear position. I was really excited about the book with the black and white photo of a face, and how it fit with mark and his top hat. all 3 books have faces, but the photo of the black and white face seems to be the most powerful. 

THIS IS MY IDEA

I chose Burke's books as the small business that I would love to make work for. I was thinking of how to make reading look more fun and interesting than the associated physical act of staying stationary and reading a book...so I thought of having a straight ahead horizontal shot of 3 people reading books with a backdrop of the bookshelves. The 3 characters will be dressed in costumes, or have something ridiculous about them going on, that will associate them with the book that they are reading. the book will hide the majority of the character's face because the ad isn't about the figure, it's about the act of reading. The point of the ad will be to break reading out of it's traditional imagery  and make the figures doing the reading more interesting. It would be a quirky way to show that everyone can enjoy reading, without going into anything too deep and controversial (color, class or other stereotypes) the ad will also allude to the idea of the person reading "becoming part of the story."  

negative nancy

so for the negative advertisements, they seem to concentrate on the scare factor, they play off of dark, intimidating colors for the most part, and they are usually anti-(insert verb of choice here) smoking, sexing, drinking, etc. ads. They play off of fears, fears of death, pain, or causing death or pain to someone else. Quite the contrast to the rainbow ads for ipods. 

POSI.

okay, so after some searching I figured out that most advertising is trying to be pretty positive. most people want to feel good when they buy something, so it all makes sense.

another (less obvious) take is using a person with positive connotations to advertise a certain product. For example: Wes Anderson. He's known for quirky, colorful, fun, story-driven movies. So when american express chose him to promote their card, they are trying to say, we are colorful, fun, and quirky. (cough- credit card debt-cough) anyway. color is obviously an important aspect to these ads. The bright rainbow colors that both apple and vitamin water use are an automatic good feeling maker (for most people anyway..) The ads are simple, playing on the idea of simplifying life, a common theme for most "trendy" money-making americans. Speaking of "trendy," all three of these positive ads seem to target the young, artistic audience. 

  

heaven and hell part two

hell for me is a conscious ignorance. I like the way these images turned out, so I'll probably stick with this idea. 

heaven and hell part one

I think that more of heaven would come to earth if people would just learn how to notice more things aside from themselves. these images are really literal representations of this idea, maybe i'll find a less literal way to portray this idea, but i like the consistency of these images. 

COMPRESSED IMAGES