Final Project: Standing Rock

  1. The text starts by talking about the last time Native Americans were in the eyes of the media, in 1973 when occupying the town of Wounded Knee in South Dakota. The article talks about these horrible injustices towards Native Americans and compares the situation in 1973 to the current situation at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. For months, Native Americans and allies have gathered at Standing Rock to protest the Dakota Access oil pipeline which is a pipeline that would cut through some of their sacred site and pollute their waters. The protests have brought together tribes that have been enemies in the past, to together fight the government not only for the DAPL, but for the continuous injustices towards Native Americans that includes lack of funding for tribal education and building infrastructure on Indian land without consultation or consent from the tribes. Thousands of people are protesting at Standing Rock, without weapons, but still being treated in an inhumane way by the police.
  2. The primary audience is people who are ignorant about Native Americans, and the secondary audience is people who want to stop injustices for Native American people and who are working to educate the primary audience
  3. My approach is a combination of literal and metaphorical
  4. I’m planning to use still life for the project as I see that as the most efficient way of illustrating the issues
  5. N/A
  6. The objects I’m looking at using are feathers, a dreamcatcher and a mix of olive oil and black paint that is supposed to look like it’s petroleum oil
  7. I will use dramatic lighting, 4:1
  8. I’m planning for the photos to be dark and dramatic. One image idea is to use techniques with shutter speed to freeze oil dripping into water. Another idea is for a dream catcher to catch fire – assuming I can’t actually do this in the studio, the fire will have to be done in Photoshop. I will photograph the dream catcher hanging in the air towards a black background, maybe over the reflective black table.

3 thoughts on “Final Project: Standing Rock

  1. rmichals

    This is a timely topic. there are two things that different still life options can emphasize: the destruction of Native American culture and water pollution. I think simple and metaphoric will bring those things out best. Its probably not ideal to burn the dreamcatcher in class. Are there other ways to show damage to the dreamcatcher?

    A black drop or series of droplets going into “clean” or blue water makes a point and it an ideal thing to shoot in the studio. We have one large try for this though some blue or other color material to line it with would help.

    Reply
    1. hege_b Post author

      Hi Professor,

      Thanks a lot for your feedback! I’m not sure exactly what you mean by “blue or other color material to line it with”? Is this to give the water more of a blue look?

      Reply
      1. rmichals

        the pan we have in the studio is metal and so the color is gray. To set off the black pollution you are going to need a different pan or a way to make the water in the one we have set off the black drops. maybe do the dream catcher if you have it tomorrow and the drops next week.

        Reply

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