Category Archives: Uncategorized

Driving Shoot

Summary: e.e cummings ‘ poem is a metaphorical recollection of a woman losing her virginity as told from the perspective of an awkward narrator. He uses the imagery of starting a car and enjoying a ride to frame the tone of the experience, whereas Phillip Levine’s poem is more about confronting a grim reality through passing by its unfortunate effects day after day, as one would driving to work. In Levine’s poem, the figurative person written about wonders what has become of Detroit after returning from parts elsewhere, and realizing things have taken a turn for the worse.

Communication Problem: How does one take the same toy car and impart an awkward, youthful take on it, then reverse and show something very downtrodden and depressing.

Image Ideas: On the principle of tonality, brighter colors and high key lighting would best match e.e cummings’ work, while more dramatic low key lighting would fit Levine’s poem. I feel the camera angle and cropping would be closer and intimate with e.e cummings’ poem while the contrary would create a lonesome feeling for Levine.

Results: The car I brought in, a 1957 Chevrolet, had such a personality in the shoot. When going for something somber, the red paint was still vibrant where light fell on it, but it was the surroundings that really gave the image its connotation. Very rarely did the color become defused based on the settings of the camera. It was because of this, the bright positive images shined through almost literally. The photographs in shadow are strong in color contrast as well as light and dark, the red comes through in a very impactful way, and broken up by darkness, the car takes on a forlorn, lost quality, which I think lends itself to Levine’s work.

Car poems

“She being Brand” by e.e Cummings

Summary: This poem is like the first time you get a car and like the first time you make love. There are several parts where the author talks about “oh and her gears being in A 1 shape” and “I touched the accelerator and gave her the juice;good”, it was after hearing the poem that i really got the sense of the poem. this middle aged man is riding his car for the first time in a while and is describing the car like a women.

Image Ideas: Using an old time car from 1900-1940, i will prop two cars in a way so it resembles a human action. Using primarily red colors to give that sense of lust and romance between a person and their car, or between two cars.

 

“Coming Home, Detroit” by Phillip Levine

Summary: This poem is more dramatic in the setting and story. this talks primarily about the modernization of the city of Detroit and how the pollution of all the factories and cars are making the skies more polluted and the river reaching their end by the color of iron. The poem gives a very dramatic way of a ride through the city becoming an eye-opener for this man driving is car to work (work= everyday)

Image Ideas: Using grey color scheme I will show how cars and modern society is killing the natural environment on a daily basis.

She Being Brand & Coming Home, Detroit, 1968

Summary: “She Being Brand” by e.e. cummings is about someones first experience driving. They felt very excited. The poem itself sounds very lustful and passionate. It describes the car in a very passionate graphic way. The poem “Coming Home, Detroit, 1968” by Philip Levine is described as an experience while driving through the streets of Detroit. It has a lot of great adjectives describing Detroit.

Communication Problem: “She Being Brand” to be fun and exciting and somewhat standout. & for “Coming Home, Detroit, 1968” to be sad, destructive, emotional.

Image Ideas: For “She Being Brand” I want to have a nice beautiful car that can stand out. Make the image look exciting, just the like the poem. Having maybe a dark background, with an overhead light. For ” Coming Home, Detroit, 1968″ I want to try to have also a dark background making it very serious. I want this toy car not to be as flashy as the one I will be using for the other poem.

 

cars poems breakdown

“Coming Home, Detroit 1968”

this poem is referring to the downfall and burning of a dear city to the author. something familiar is suddenly terrifying and closed off. I’d like to use a car that appears to be from the era  turned over on a black background with a fire burning eyes that are shut in with and nailed with boards.

“‘she being Brand’ by e.e. cummings”

This poem references being astounded by the sheer power of a vehicle and how easy it is to run it into the ground if you don’t know what you’re doing. I’d like to say that the author was joyful and enthusiastic enough to believe that he can push this vehicle to it’s limits. The idea of a vehicle hopping over a gap and mid air with typography below the car being turned while in mid air.

Topic 6: Potatoes

Summary:
The article talks about how certain potatoes now are registered as a Monsanto patent, which makes it illegal to grow them for more than one cycle. The craziest thing about the article is how it mentions that the potatoes are registered as a pesticide. Who would want to eat a pesticide? The author also compares this altering of plant genes to changing it’s software.

Communication Problem:
For The Botany of Desire, the images should show how these GMO potatoes (and other vegetables) are not real food. It should be symbolized that they’re fake, poisonous. For the Idaho potato, the image should show something about their quality and popularity.

Image ideas:
For The Botany of Desire: This would have to involve Photoshop, but an idea could be for a photo of a potato where parts of the skin is peeled back and underneath the skin you see that it’s not real. There’s something foreign inside of it, maybe it’s blue or it’s full of weird particles (made in Photoshop). Or the potato could be cut in two, with the same concept of showing something strange and alien inside of the potato. Another more typical idea would be to show a syringe needle injecting something into the potato. But I don’t know if it’s realistic to be able to get hold of this as a prop. Using the author’s metaphor of the genes being like software, there could also be something computer-like, maybe an USB stick, sticking into the potato. This might be the easiest approach because it’s a ready available prop.

For The Idaho Potato, it would be fun to spell out something with potato peel, or a more traditional approach of showing a potato as very organic, healthy and appetizing.

Results:
The results doesn’t totally align with my initial ideas, but looking at the photos I realized that my idea of the skin being peeled back that I had for The Botany of Desire cover instead ended up worked really well for the Idaho Potato, as I came up with the idea of seeing a “stamp of approval”, the official Idaho Potato stamp, being revealed under the skin of the potato. For the Botany of Desire, I wasn’t happy with how the photos turned out with the syringe and during the shoot we were able to do some very close macro photos of the potatoes. Looking at these potatoes, it reminded me of a moon landscape and I chose to use one of these images because it captured the potato looking foreign and like it doesn’t belong at earth. I wish the macro photos were technically better/less blurry, but I think it captures the concept well.

Image links:
Idaho Potato
The Botany of Desire

The Botany of Desire

  1. Summary: The article is about famers that plan potatoes that they can eat and sell but will be illegal to replant. Also how farmers nowadays cannot naturally grow many crops without chemical fertilizers., pesticides, machinery, and fuel. This expensive “input” make the farmer’s debt greater, jeopardizes his health, erodes his soil and ruins its fertility, pollutes the groundwater, and compromises the safety of the food we eat.
  2. Communication Problem: To show food nowadays are mostly genetically engineered with expensive and toxic chemicals and it isn’t good for our health.
  3. Image Ideas: Close up of hands in medical gloves holding a potato and a needle in it. Also hands in medical gloves measuring the potato. A potato in soils and the roots underneath shows chemicals and other harmful items.
  4. Results:

Whats the point of college? Utility

Before Photo shoot:
The article goes over a lot of key points on weather or not college is made for the free thinker (utopia) or the by the book everyday joe (utility). The Idea of utility is described by following the rules, going to classes everyday, business educated and follows a strong impression of everyone leaving school and getting a 9-5 job. For my take on how to show the utility of college I will attempt to capture a busy environment with students either studying or something school related. Also the color of the photo will primarily be gray or brown.

Communication Problem:How do you show school in a efficient and self sustaining view? As students this should just be an image of our everyday lives.

After Photo shoot:
I captured myself walking to school with students passing by. the primary colors are grey and blue. The lighting was natural and it was shot low angle. The main reason why I feel that this describes utility is because students go to school everyday to educate themselves on the important matters of todays society, its less personal to the student and more focused on the education system.

Lower Manhattan Revival

Before Photo shoot:
The article on the lower Manhattan revival goes many differences and changes over the years such as the new Freedom towers, the area becoming more culturally open and the diversity the location leaves it open for change for the future. My main idea for this shoot is to let people know that the lower Manhattan area is more than just the freedom tower and wall street. So through the use of bright and vibrant colors i would like to capture small areas in lower Manhattan and give it a more independent vibe.

Communication Problem: How do you show the lower Manhattan area in a bright light, without making it all about the Freedom tower? The lower Manhattan area branches out all the way to Tribeca, wall street and many more other neighborhoods.

After Photo shoot:
I managed to get two separate shoots to help express this articles ideas, one of the lower manhattan area between Tribeca and wall street, and the other being about the freedom tower being rebuilt. I didn’t edit the light because the day was bright and beautiful. I edited the vibrance of the colors and the clarity of it. The same was done for the one with the freedom tower. Overall I feel like I captured the essence of the article appropriately.

Social media addiction

Before Photo Shoot:
As a person who uses social media on an everyday basis, this article affected me personally. From the idea that social media addiction can be as serious as an addiction with heroine. So my idea is to follow something that we as people need on an everyday basis and substitute that with social media usage. For color i would primarily stick with cool colors such as blu and green maybe, also a darker tone to show more drama in my shots.

Communication Problem: How do you show addiction? Through many ways you can show an attatchment to something, but an addiction is usually and uncontrollable urge to have something in an instant.

After Photo Shoot:
I used my idea and substitute Sleep for social media usage. Using a photo of my friends laying down on a bed looking at her phone i accomplish my photo idea. the color is primarily blue and black, in a dark tone the message of this ad resembles typical rehab advertisements. Overall the idea of comparing social media addiction to a drug addiction seems to me a bit to far fetched so by not making it seem that sever i didn’t use anything to make that connection.

Topic four: Headphones and hearing loss ad

Headphone Ad

Before Photo shoot:
For the second headphone ad that we are doing, we are Advertising the headphone company. There are a lot of big music companies that make headphones, so depending on which headphone I will use will also decide the feel for the color and tone of the advertisement.

Communication problem: How do you show a good headphone ad without blowing up the logo all over the page? Also avoiding copying the styles of the headphone company.

After Photo shoot:
I ended up using the Turtle beach headphones for my advertisement, by using a classmate of mine as a model it came out rather well. The color scheme was black and green which is the same color of the headphones. With the logo of the brand in the corner it is a simple but effective way of showing their target demographic and a good ad overall.

Hearing loss Ad

Before Photo shoot:
As a big time headphone user this article really opened my ears to final understand that playing loud music can diminish your hearing by more than half by the time you reach 40. So this gave me opportunity to use my class mates to show the severity of headphone users. The main color idea i have in mind is for it to be dark and serious.

Communication problem: How do you show sound if you can see it? Describing something you can’t even see or understand how serious it is for people with such difficulty can be tough.

After Photo shoot:
My final photo followed my main idea of having a serious tone with a dark color scheme. My classmate is holding the headphone as if he is about to take them off. The color is primarily dark because of the black background. The text accompanying the ad helps give more understanding on the image and it works well since it give its own description. Overall this was a good ad and big ear opener.