Photo Diptych

Masks

Jean Zhang

Starring: Jackie Chen (Adulthood) & Yihong Zhou (Childhood)

 

Concept

For the Photo Diptych concept, I wanted to talk about the different selves or the masks we wear in our lives due to the great pressure society and work life give us.
The work can represent the complete story of a person who already entered the workforce. It could be a typical workday for him walking on the street with all his masks on, on a rainy day, in a bad and depressed mood. After getting back home, with all the masks taken off and hung on the hat rack, the workman looked at himself in the mirror. He would somehow recall his memory of his childhood, without these masks, so uninhibited and joyful. I would like to convey to the audience that we can take off the masks that we have in life and release the pressure these masks bring to us, back to the original freedom that we had in childhood.

 

Process

For the first part of taking the original photo, I first tried taking the photo in the studio setting with a clear background. With the caps placed on the character’s head, it represents the masks that he is wearing. During the in-progress work peer review, I got useful advice on using a different background to make the composition more interesting and not seem like fashion magazines. Also, I found more hats of different types to represent the different masks that people wear.

I tried again and kept the use of the hats representing the masks. I placed the character in the road view to suit the story in a real scene of a fast-paced city with high buildings. With the rainy weather, the depressed emotions and the cold feeling can be shown in the work. Also, adding the sense of movement as the man is walking on the sidewalks makes the whole image more vivid. According to my initial sketch, I picked the one with the best position and angle that I had. I also made the cold tones of the piece more pronounced to bring out the somber atmosphere.

(Initial Sketch)

(Picked Work with Color Edition)

 

For the second picture, I initially wanted to find a sunny day and get another picture with a similar background and use Photoshop to edit the positions of the hats and use color contrast to show that the guy takes off his hats and gets the freedom. I also did close-ups for the hats to key them easier in edition. However, I thought afterward that this would be a bit too simple and lacking in storytelling, while I didn’t come across a free perfectly sunny day, so I gave it up. 

 

Fun dorm photography studio experience (though the photos didn’t come in handy in the end)

I came up with the idea of the man looking at the mirror and the hats hanging up, and I tried different elements to complete the story. I took the picture of the man looking at the mirrors and the hats are placed on the side. I went back to home in countryside and with the pictures taken with my father, my grandfather, and my nephew, acting as the same person as the character in the image, I thought about how to connect the story reasonably.

(Original photographic work of pic 2)

(Interesting working progress documentation. Love u Grandpa!)

Finally, with Photoshop masking and filters and other editions, I got the second work of the person looking at himself and recalling the memory of his carefree childhood. Also, I made the color of the second image warmer to use the contrast to show the different emotions in the diptych.

(Final Edited Work)

Conclusion

I actually spent a lot of time working on connecting the photos of the man in childhood and also elderhood with the present to have a more complete story. I’m not sure if it is a better idea than keeping the space of imagination as the work has now to give the audience more free thoughts, but probably I can give it a try.

Also, I would like to retake the first picture to include more in the background, such as higher buildings, to make it interesting. And I would spend time to figure out a clearer and more direct connection between the concept of masks and the use of hats.

 

Photo Diptych

 

(Contact Sheet)

Credits to

Starring: Jackie Chen(adulthood), Yihong Zhou(childhood)

Prof. Yunmi Her and my dear classmates
My dear grandpa, dad, and nephew
Tina Liu
Yanran Deng
Chris He
Jerry Cao
Tommy Wang
George Chen
Lareina Chen
Rachel Li
Lisa Huang
Freddie Yang
Xiangyi Zhong

💜 Great gratitude and love to all my family and friends offering great support and valuable advice during the work process!!!