The overall concept for the Diptych
From the very beginning, I wanted to take a photo related to plastic bags, since the special material of plastic bags, I thought it would make the photo quite interesting. Immediately after, I saw a video of a plastic bag being used as a kite, and suddenly I realized that plastic bags also have their own freedom.
Here’s the video from Jennifer ηΊ³θ±
Then it occurred to me that I have always had a collection of plastic bags, but they are forever sitting there and I never really use them.
Combining these inspirations above, what I want to express through Diptych is that a truly environmentally friendly act is not just collecting plastic bags all at once but never putting them to use. Rather, it should be to reuse the plastic bags you already have as much as possible.
Pre-vision about Diptych
For the first photo I want to take, I want to capture a bunch of plastic bags sinking in the water. They will be placed one over the other, together in a large plastic bag, just like a plastic bag coffin. And because they will float in the water, it is like being buried alive, struggling to escape from the coffin that imprisoned them.
In the second picture, I want to make a collage composed of various plastic substitutes (such as paper straws, cloth bags, glass water cups). They replace the work of plastic as if to form a plastic-free future comes. But the usual things they carry, such as water in a glass, food or books in a cloth bag are all turned into plastic bags. The symbolism is that if plastic bags are hoarded and not used, they will persist in the future where plastic seems and should be gone.
Between two images
The first picture will show the current situation of hoarded plastic bags, and the second picture will show the future of hoarded plastic bags.
The first picture should show the hoarded plastic bags that are confined and want to be released from their confinement and really put into use. And the second picture will be the consequences of being bound, that is, the continued existence of the pile of plastic bags eventually breaking through the shackles, completely subverting normal life.
There is a progressive relationship between the two in time and the contrast between being bound and being released shows a frightening implication if we keep hoarding plastic bags.
Image to take
I plan to take the first photo and some photos of plastic alternatives. To show that the plastic substitutes are all plastic, I need to shoot more of the empty substitutes and show more clearly the angle at which it carries things.
Photoshop manipulation
Firstly, I want to change the light of the pictures. The first photo is planned to be dark, and the second photo to be bright, shaping a sense of contrast where the future appears to be brighter but is actually darker.
Secondly, I conceived of what is probably a collage of plastic substitutes as shown in the example figure, but together they form the shape of a plastic bag or are shrouded with a plastic bag mask, symbolizing the reign of plastic has not left.
