A. Clarissa La Scola, Through the Looking Glass
B. Concept
The photograph captures a messy desk lit by a single warm tone lightbulb in the first image. Behind the lightbulb is a computer filled with love and supportive post-it notes written by a mother’s son. The notes of pink and yellow are lit up by the bulb, the rest of the objects on the table are darker. The lit-up notes represent the mother’s strength, her son’s love, and support are what keep her going. The cluster of items surrounding the bulb is messy and unorganized. This represents reality as it is symbolic of her struggle. In the second image, the picture is taken from a lower angle from the other side of the desk. This depicts the son’s perspective of the mother’s life. The son recognizes his love letters and knows it helps her to keep strong which is why they are highlighted. He sees his mom like a beautiful flame trapped in her glass pot, which is why the flame was captured in a way that resembled a woman. Only the flame is highlighted to symbolize isolation and emptiness. This concept was inspired by the relationship of a friend of mine. He’s the son of a single working mom and he tries his best to support her when she works long hours. I wanted to depict the difference in perspective of a mother and child. In particular, how they perceive each other’s responsibilities and struggles.
C. Process
Staging and photographing the first part was relatively simple. It was based on a pre-existing set so all I had to do is slightly reorganize the items on the desk in order to emphasize the message that I am trying to convey. My main focus was on highlighting the notes and creating shadows in their surroundings. I best did this by using the reduce brightness tool on the iPhone camera before taking the image itself. In order the achieve the look that is presented to you in the second image, I layered the same images on top of each other and then edited some of them by lowering the saturation until black and white. I then used the eraser tool to highlight the areas that I wanted to be colored. Next, I used different scales and opacities if the eraser tool in order to buffer out the harsh erased lines. Finally, I used a filter tool by adding Noise to the image to create the distorted look that I was aiming for. The noise represented a sense of chaos and confusion in the mother’s work life. The filter did a good job of emphasizing that emotion. The final product only highlighted two objects: 1. The burred notes and 2. The flame. The other versions of this image are shown below, I decided the remove all the signs of the red candle wax as I thought it took away from the “isolation” of the woman.
D. Conclusion
If I had more time I would definitely focus on the photoshop aspect of the piece. I would try out different compositions and experiment a little more with tools and layering. I would also take some better and more focused pictures in order to give that sharper and more refined final look. Regardless of the minimalist outlook used in the second image, I believe that its simplicity is what truly gives the impression of isolation. The use of too many tools would have strayed away from my intentions.
E. Image of Diptych
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