The role of photography has evolved over time and what was once reserved for the wealthy and privileged is now available to anyone. In the past the role of photography was once used to capture and preserve simple memories. In comparison to the role of photography in contemporary society which is now used to inform, document, entertain and create desire. I believe that in today’s American obsession with consumerism photography affects and influences our lives by creating desire. The reality of a photographic image is subjective, it is a communication between the creator and the viewer but only the viewer can decide if it is the truth. As the technology of digital manipulation advances the reality of a photograph becomes less accurate. I no longer look at present photography as the truth but I appreciate it as an art form.
My composition is a humorous look into the reality digital photography. The original photographic images are captured expressive moments in the subject’s face. On their own they are just a candid look into the lives of people and an animal but combined together form another meaning. I have titled this piece Multiple Personalities. I came across an image of a drawing that had heads stacked inside one another and thought it would be entertaining to see that type of image using photographs of real people. It reminds me of the duality of our inner selves. I feel that we each have moments in our lives that we are a; cool headed dude, a crazy chick, a kitty cat and of course a clown.
For the technical aspects of this composition I use pretty basic beginning Photoshop tools. I began by eliminating backgrounds of the photographs by using the quick selection tool. Areas that I could not isolate with the quick selection tool I used the background erasure with a small point to get the fine details around the subjects. I used the elliptical marquee tool to layer ovals on top of the heads to create the illusion of them being open and empty. I then filled the bottom ovals with the subject’s skin tone color and filled the top ovals black using the paint bucket function. I used a cloudscape for the background and adjusted the opacity to tone down the colors. I copied and pasted each head into a different layer on top of the cloudscape.
I would like to enhance the composition with some highlights and shadows but I could not get them to look right. I enjoyed my first project for Digital Arts class because I was able to find a concept and then fit it within the criteria of the assignment.
Source Images:
Man
Girl
Cat
Clown
Nice job Jen. Very interesting composition.
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