photographic fiction : colour manipulation trial

With the photo's from my second shoot, I started playing around a bit with photoshop to try and achieve the same cold hues Jonze did in his "Lamp" ad. I also changed the curve levels and burn and dodge tools to darken the image a bit to make it look a bit more sombre. I think it came out alright, but I had a hard time showing the colder colours without making it look obviously changed as a lot of the whites turned quite blue.

Photo manipulated to have colder tones

photographic fiction : second shoot

These are the photo's from my second shoot. Again, I mainly focused on the in-shop coffee cup experience. I have emailed a store in Lower Hutt which sells the cups and have arranged a time with them later this week to shoot in their store. 

From these images, I focused on the disposable coffee cups being in this environment which is almost like an orphanage, waiting to be chosen. With this I also played with the idea of the coffee pots being more like idols to the cups, as they are reused. To show this I used lower angels to portray them as being higher beings, along with putting the coffee cups out of focus when shown with the pots showing that they hold less relevance. 

From here, I think it will be good to have the shots from the store showing where they first start at. And then to continue that, I need to take more photos this week of the actual human interaction with the cups. I also will play around with curves to see how I can manipulate colouring and lighting to portray feelings of the cups.

photographic fiction : artist precedent

I have been having a bit of trouble finding photographers who personify objects creating a narrative, so I have focused on Spike Jonze's ad for IKEA "Lamp". Jonze uses lots of perspective shots from the lamps point of view which makes us view the lamp as a living thing as opposed to an object. With this, he also creates empathy for the lamp by using lots of high and low angle shots, making the lamp look small and powerless. Jonze then uses cooler colours to add to the sad tone of the ad. These are techniques that I want to apply to my project in order to communicate the coffee cups feelings.

Spike Jonze's "Lamp" ad for IKEA

photographic fiction : final proposal

For this project I want to explore a portion of the product life-cycle of a disposable coffee cup, starting at it's "birth" at a manufacturers and ending it’s “life” in a rubbish bin. Through this project I will aim to communicate how the majority of the disposable coffee cups “life” is spent waiting to be used. With this, when the cup is finally fulfilling it’s true purpose to be used by the consumer, it is only for a fraction of it's lifecycle then discarded.

I want this project to act as a small insight into issues regarding consumerism and the need for reusable products. Aiming to communicate this by subtly personifying the cup, making it at first seem forgotten and longing to be used, then giving it aspiration to be a reusable product such as teapots and coffee mugs. From here I will imply the disposable cup is “happy” as it is being used, giving it a false sense of security in the consumers embrace, only to then be abandoned, ending it’s “life”.

I will try to achieve this by using high camera angles to make the cups look small and powerless, and high perspective shots of the cups to show their point of view, giving the cups perspective and life. With this I will manipulate the feelings of the images by slightly changing the colouring of the photos, using cold colours to depict sadness and warmer colours to give the feeling of happiness and belonging. I think that this will allow my narrative to be explained more clearly and give feeling to the story.

photographic fiction: initial shoot

Here are a couple of shots from my initial shoot. While not completely certain how I want to portray the  lifecycle of the disposable coffee cup, I focused on the timeframe from when the cup is sitting at a cafe, to when it is purchased or adopted. These photographs were shot at Fidels on Cuba Street.

I like this photo as it shows the cups coming from the packaging as a group. It would be interesting to get photos from the earliest stages of this if possible to show the actual start of their lifecycle. However, coming from this packaging could be interpreted as their "birth".

I like this photo as the cups aren't the focus of the shot. They are almost lost in the image, blending into similar background colours. This portrays them as not belonging to anyone yet.

 I don't feel like this image is necessarily strong or needed. However I thought that the idea of the actual action of paying to get the coffee cup was interesting in terms of looking at what consumers find necessary.

Again, although this image isn't very strong, I think it is a crucial event in the cup's lifecycle as it is one where it becomes one with the person.

Although this image isn't relevant to the narrative or coffee shop itself, I thought it was interesting that they would advertise coffee with clothing. It makes a suggestion that coffee is as important as clothing.

I am reasonably happy with the outcome of my initial shoot, not that it gave me great photos, but it really gave me a much better idea as to where I want to take this project. If I had more time to take more photographs I could have gotten some images that I could actually use.

I would like to work on conveying more feeling into the images to personify the coffee cups. I am not sure yet if I will do this manually or through photo shop.

photographic fiction: photograph discussion

Photograph by Gregory Crewdson

This photograph by Gregory Crewdson interests me as it takes an image that we are now so accustomed to - the quintessential American home - and turns it into an image that is quite upsetting and not right. To me it shows how what we are lead to believe through media such as television, movies and advertising, isn't quite the reality. That these perfect welcoming homes are not that. It also reveals that it is all set up, accomplished by the framed and symmetrical layout of the image that is really unnatural. This shows me that the bright and colourful worlds of advertising are actually surrounded by the dark world of consumerism, depicted through the lighting choice of this image.

photographic fictions: initial proposal

For this project, I am aiming to communicate the product lifecycle of a disposable, takeaway coffee cup. I will explore themes of ownership and importance that is placed to the cup by the user, ultimately ending in consumption and then disposal. This can then further communicate ideas of consumer behaviour.

I want to portray how the coffee cup is adopted as part of the user when first purchased; how it acts as almost a lifeline to the user by containing a substance that can be seen as vital sustenance to some people's everyday. I will explore how getting that coffee is shaping an everyday routine, then look at how it is embraced by the user. The cup goes with the person, and is cherished. However, when the coffee cup is no longer full, the cup becomes redundant and all the importance applied to the cup is forgotten. I will shoot this narrative as a series.

From this project, I hope that I can personify the cup, making it have initial feelings of importance and "self-worth" then contrast this with the ultimate feelings of uselessness and betrayal. It would be interesting to then allude this idea to the greater consumer behaviour as to how consumers buy a product and cherish it for a limited amount of time and then dispose of it without thought. I am not one hundred percent sure as to how I will achieve this yet however.

photographic fiction: flikr inspiration

This flikr group is dedicated to showing the best 100 photographs on flickr. It interests me as it shows a wide variety of photography styles and subjects, offering a broad spectrum of inspiration.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/best100only/

Utterly Surreal exhibit some beautiful images which have a bizarre quality to them, making them very surreal (as the name suggests). This will be useful to my blog, especially with the first project, looking at these created worlds which aren't always life like.
http://www.flickr.com/groups/utterlysurreal/pool/

Arts Photography showcases photographs that are professional quality, showing meticulous use of photography techniques. This will be a great reference tool throughout my projects to see how different lighting, framing and such can be used to communicate different things within photography. It also gives me a good reference as to what works and what doesn't.
http://www.flickr.com/groups/art-photography/