Photo Diptych
Eva Weisenfeld, “Between the Lines”
At first, I had no idea how to approach this assignment. Coming from a journalism photography background, the idea of modifying my photos beyond some light touchups was foreign to me. So, to get started, I went around Shanghai and did what I have always done: capture moments. I treated those photos as I usually do, taking them into Lightroom for some touchups. Once I was satisfied, I brought them all into Photoshop to create a contact sheet so I could better visualize how they worked together. All I saw were a series of memories, though not necessarily mine.
After much discussion with a few people, I decided to use the power line photo as my main concept photo. Once I had that in mind, I started messing around with my photos. I realized that I could use the gaps naturally created by the power lines to create a sort of collage effect.
I spent a total of three days going out and taking photos. I made it a point to focus more on parts of the city that were a little more hidden to further emphasize the idea of the “unseen moments in between.” At the end of each day, I edited the photos in Lightroom, then brought them into Photoshop to be added to the collage.
I didn’t necessarily have a method to the placement of the photos; I sort of let them “tell me” where they belonged. If it felt right, I would cut the photo according to the shape of the hole and it would become a part of the piece. However, there are some “mini stories” within the collage to emphasize the idea that each photograph is merely a snippet of someone’s life, a moment in which the life of the subject and the life of the viewer intersect before going their separate ways. The biggest example is in the flow of the image. The viewer’s eye starts at the hand holding the bowl of live fish. Then, it follows the power lines into the top left corner, where there is a photo of a man filleting a fish, until finally, their eye lands on the drying fish on the right. Every other photo lies in between that story, each telling a story of their own, though together they develop a complete narrative.
To me, this was very much an exercise in composition. Each photo I took had its own intentional composition, but that didn’t always fit into the hole made by the telephone wires. So, I had to make decisions regarding how the images communicate with one another, as well as how individual elements inside each photo worked together to best fit the photo into its hole. I did initially want each hole to be an individual photo; I did not want repeats. However, I quickly realized that was not reasonable, so I had to borrow elements from each photo and figure out how to make sure the repetition was not noticeable.
Honestly, I am proud of this project. It would have been nice to have been able to include more photos, but I also feel like including more would overwhelm the viewer. I do also feel like the concept was not super obvious, though I am not sure how I would change the final product to make it more clear.
Contact Sheet:
