Edit: I was editing my project and had it on private and forgot so, it was private so I’m posting a new one and hopefully I can get some input before class! Thank you!

For my final project I was thinking of doing either a social issue or a brand.

For the social issue, my topic would be about the topic of journalist freedom and how reporters around the world are getting killed or imprisoned for sharing news the government don’t want them to share to the public. The government censors the free flow of information to control citizens. And every year, reports are killed or imprisoned for it. Just in 2017, 51 Journalist, 7 citizens journalist and 8 media assistants were killed. While 181 journalist,121 citizen journalist, 16 media assistant were imprisoned. This was based of the website and organization call Reports Without Borders: For Freedom of Information. These statistics are ones were the RSF was able to confirm that they were killed or imprisoned because of their journalistic work. This is the link: https://rsf.org/en/barometer?year=2017.

And these are two articles that talked about it:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/apr/20/era-of-propaganda-press-freedom-in-decline-says-reporters-without-borders

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/04/reports-borders-journalism-tipping-point-170426055328722.html

For the photoshoot I had ideas of using still life and portraits.  For the still life, it would be similar to a the campaign that Reporters Without Borders were they showed pens and pencils being broken and saying “reporters are treated how you treat your pens” but I wanted to take it a step further and break the pen in two and have ink coming out. Also, I wanted to maybe use the ink in a graphic way. Using any items journalist would use and turn them into a gruesome one or showing it being imprisoned.

For portraits, I was thinking maybe having a “hand shadow” in front of subject as if they’re covering them, preventing the person from talking. Another one would be using plain old tape or wire to cover their mouth.

Another idea was of a newspaper as a prop being distorted.

Another idea was to have a camera in someone’s hand as if they are the handcuff. Probably from the back. With everything black and a spotlight on the hands.

Or perhaps, having a microphone on one side and someone trying to talk with tape on their mouth.

FOR BRAND

I was interested in doing hot sauce! Tabasco. I’m an advertising major and always loved the ads done by that brand and would love to put my own twist on it.

I was, of course, thinking of shooting still life of the bottle like in the manner of the example you showed in class of https://www.shappsphotography.com. Bringing real peppers to the class as well. I want to play with the transparency of the bottle and how it cast shadows.

And perhaps ask classmates to show reaction of someone who ate something super spicy. In a comical way.

I don’t know which of the two topics to go through so I would like your opinion on what would work best and what sounds like a better idea.

Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan focused on one out of four different plants that have evolved because of human’s desire for them. For the article we read, it focused on the potato and how our desire to control it sort of guide it to what it is today. It talks about how great the potato is in the fact that it is able to feed such a huge amount of people. However, the article mentions how potatoes used to be sprayed with pesticide, a spray used to kill bugs that would eat/ruin the natural potato in it’s growing stage. The reason for the farmers spraying such toxic chemicals on something people would eat is because of such high demands. The alternative to this, some believed, was to create NewLeaf. NewLeaf created genetic engineered potatoes that won’t need to be sprayed with a pesticide, known as GMO to consumers. The metaphor Pollan used was that these potatoes were an operating system like Microsoft, they were Monsanto’s intellectual property.

When I read the article the first time my idea was to portray the Potato in a sort of evil/negative manner with it being chemical enhanced and all. However, I actually saw the documentary of Botany of Desire and my ideas changed a bit. I feel that the focus of the book/documentary is not to portray this in a negative way but rather to shed light and give an in-depth look into this. It took a very neutral approach, in my opinion.

Photo Idea: Botany of Desire

I want to run with the idea of “shedding light” so for one of the ideas, I want a dark background with a front view of the potato or maybe quarter view with a bright spotlight shining on the potato giving it a “spotlight” effect and all our focus would be going to the potato. I want to try one with normal light and one with a green or red light using gel lights. Another idea to bring a magnifying glass and use that in different ways. One would be to the potato being up front and having the magnifying glass directly in front of it, another one would be to have the magnifying glass from the top view angle,

Another approach would be to use reflection with Rembrandt lighting for a dramatic effect and shadows. Again, I want to play with the gel lights to incorporate the genetically engineered feel to it. Using the same idea of having the potato reflect I want to try it with a broad light so we can see a lot more details of the potato but still have some shadows to create a serious tone.

Photo idea: Fresh Direct

For fresh direct, I want a lot of green veggies with bright, well-lit background using butterfly lighting. I want close up shots with water drops on vegetables to indicate freshness. Another approach is to create depth with the potato and veggies, using broad light for dimension. I want there to be little empty space in the photograph.

For Utility U, I am thinking of emphasizing the idea of money and having to pay for college in an exchange for something. So for one shot, the student can be handing off money in an exchange for a book or something that represent school/learning. Or maybe another idea could be throwing money like is a cap and gown. Or a dollar sign shape as a cap.

For Utopia U, the idea of being free and finding oneself seems like an interesting focus. So perhaps, the idea of meditating in a school chair with the idea of being free. Maybe someone laying down on the floor surrounded by paper. The pursuit of happiness, could be something as simple as drawing a happy face on a paper. Maybe books stack up in a ladder format representing moving up?