Daniel Woc, Friendship in Blooming

 For my photo diptych concept, I want to convey a blossoming, a beginning, a blooming, of something immensely valuable to any individual; friendship. I want to accomplish this by presenting a similarity between the beginning of friendship to the blossoming of a flower or the blooming of a tree. With a connection between these elements, I am also able to present to the viewer the fiber of friendships, how they develop so naturally, and the beauty of a friendship that feels so genuine.

Additionally, I wanted to incorporate a phrase I once stumbled across and has stuck with me ever since. “Flowers that are given out of friendship last longer than flowers are given out of apologies.” This helped me truly create a conjunction of images that appeals to our innate nature as human beings and our necessity to be sociable creatures filled with life.  

When photographing I went to the Shanghai Botanical Garden with Isa and Eddy. Even before deciding to go, I had a clear idea of what I wanted to capture and use for my project. I wanted to look for flowers in my environment as I had the previously mentioned phrase playing through my head. Additionally, I wanted to capture the nature of humans as sociable creatures by looking for small interactions between people and gestures of friendship from one to another. When looking for these little moments, I came across the image I used for part 1, a pair of kids running around and jumping into a bicycle. This might seem so simple, like child’s play, yet I think it captures so much emotion and the beginning of something that could transcend the boundaries of both space and time. It happened so suddenly and unexpectedly, yet being able to present such a simple moment was what I wanted to accomplish with my project. 

When photographing, I didn’t solely focus on people and flowers though, as I wanted to take this opportunity to explore photography, test my skills and play around a bit with a DSLR camera.

When working in photoshop, I wanted to create a collage of the images of flowers I had taken on my stroll in the garden. When looking for ideas, I was inspired by the album cover of Shawn Mendes’ 2018 album Shawn Mendes (yes the name of his album is his own name). I then decided to create a composition that incorporated both nature and people in order to create an interesting visual. Furthermore, I wanted to create a work appealing to the eye by using elements such as symmetry, color, and composition.

I quite enjoyed this project as it combined a hobby of mine with something that means a lot to me. Overall, I am satisfied with my work and the results of my efforts. However, if I had more time, I would try to make the image I created in photoshop more interesting. While I think it is very good as it is, there is room for improvement and I could’ve further explored the concepts I wanted to show to viewers. 

Here is my Contact Sheet!

Here is my final work!