Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Pet/Food

Free Bird
AFLAC!
Salmonella Central





While I find the surveillance abilities of cameras to be very interesting, I find that using a camera to analyze how people look at things more compelling. I strongly agree with Richard B. Woodward in that “photographic technology… creates a hunger to gaze upon the previously unknown or forbidden.” My project attempts to turn that idea around, and present familiar images in a way that gets the viewer to seriously think about or “know” the situation past the surface. The ability to use photographs as representation of my ideas instead of paintings or drawings reinforces the validity of the situation presented.
            The concept for this project focuses around the idea of how people [literally and conceptually] look at animals, rather than how people look at or watch other people.  I have a strong interest in the psychology behind human and animal interactions, and have attempted to explore the various situations in which human-animal interactions take place. Through my photographs and words, I hope to push the viewer to think about WHY it is that we see animals differently in these various, but ever present, situations and settings throughout our lives. In addition to the addition of captions, I have also utilized various editing techniques in Photoshop to help convey my concept even more strongly mainly through the use of color and focus. 

***Please view the images as the strategically organized set titled Pet/Food.***

3 comments:

  1. I really appreciated that you took a different approach to this project. I think your photos are quite strong, and in particular I like the one with the fish in the algae-filled tank. As we've been discussing surveillance it never even occurred to me that surveillance could apply to animals and not just people. Your project is indeed thought provoking, which I realize was the intention.

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  2. I love the juxtaposition of your meat and dissection animal photos. It seriously sounds like "the previously known or forbidden"! Your photos are very powerful in concert with each other in this set. You did a great job in capturing this sub-layer of knowing through photography, especially because it brings attention to the things we normally wouldn't may much attention to.

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  3. Continue add images to your series. It is working conceptually! When you sequence for the magazine, try juxtaposing pairs of meat/pet images that work together formally and create a rhythm. For example, the pig on the stick and the leather jacket image have a formal relationship Starting with the cute kitty on the cover cues us to think that this is yet another nauseating flickr online series, then you subvert that cliche and make a political statement. Great!

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