Book Design: My Designer of Choice

The End Result!

I could not be happier with the end result of this project. It turned out better than expected. The process was very smooth, surprisingly I never had any major issues while constructing this project (except for running out of tape!). The biggest thing I learned from this project is that the process of making a small mock-up can make the final construction of a project flow much easier. I will definitely use that technique in future projects. Also, I feel as if I learned so much about photography not only through the readings assigned, but also through just going out and taking TONS of photos. I really enjoyed this project; I feel as if the extra time and effort I put into it really paid off.

Final Concept Statement: "My concept for this arrangement of photos was to capture my ideal trio of homes. I accomplished this by taking bits and pieces from multiple houses around Lawrence, KS, and compiling them together to get one beautiful, (almost house-sized!) amalgamation of my dream neighborhood street."

A Work in Progress

The final of my process work was compiling the photomontage to my full-scale final piece. I did this by taking my Photoshop mock-up and looking at it to see which pieces I needed. I mounted it on four different pieces of foam core that I taped together, and adhered the pictures using double-sided tape.

Refined Collages

These images were my final two test collages. Both were rendered in Photoshop, but definitely helped me see what pieces and pictures I needed to gain and take to achieve my final work. This step was crucial and played a huge role in the making of my final photomontage. In the end, I decided I wanted to continue onward with the street collage for my final piece.

Test Collages

This was a trial run for composing a tiny photomontage out of 4x6 photos. This technique was to be applied to our large scale final composition at the end of the project.

 

Oh yeah, and here is me on location taking these pictures! #selfie

My Initial Locations to Shoot/Initial Ideas

The Dream Home:

Concept: To create one full picture composed of many different photos and parts of different homes to result in one large picture of a single “dream home” that i would desire. 

Brick Road Homes:

Concept: To create a photomontage of Victorian homes throughout the city of Lawrence, KS. The photographs would be layered to make many different houses look like a few homes on a neighborhood street. 

Senior House: Concept 1

Concept: To create an arranged photograph capturing time and space of this one home. Pictures will be shot in morning, night, and different types of weather to create different pieces for a final photomontage.

Concept 2:

Concept: To create the ideal senior home. I will do this by keeping mostly parts of the senior home as it is, but  also add parts of different houses to the photomontage from houses in surrounding areas.

Ways of Seeing, Episode 1 Video

This episode begins with two men, one resembling a mad professor, walking up to a neoclassical painting and cutting it with a pocket knife. The knife man identifies himself as John Berger, and he goes on to explain his intention to deconstruct the processes of representation, duplication and perception in the age of mechanical reproduction. He argues that, “The meaning of a painting no longer relies on its unique painted surface which it is only possible to see in one place at one time. Its meaning—or a large part of it—has become transmittable”.  These reproductions broaden the potential audience of works of art, but they also encourage the obsession of “authentic” originals.

Even though Berger gives credit to this boosting interest in original works of art, he goes on to say that anyone can reproduce these works for their own purposes. He argues that original images can be manipulated to serve different agendas. He concludes by stating that not all art, such as photography, is being placed on the high pedestal that it should be since there is so much reproduction going on. He says it takes the elitist element out of creating art. This was an interesting read and was a good reminder to always value original works of art, for they were constructed at the highest level of creativity possible and not stolen from anyone. I seem to always be “influenced” or “inspired” by other works, so this was great inspiration to challenge myself to be 100% original.