Exercise 4.5
Make a screen grab of a theme or object commonly photographed and note down how the pictures are similar. Then make a photo of the same theme or object, paying attention to the creativity criteria.
Screen shot of Spanish villages
Here we have an image of photos of village Spain. What we see are the typical everyday scenes of a country that many of us know, or think we know. I visit Spain very regularly as part of my work and I know the country very well.
The similarities in the photos are first and foremost that the photographer wants to impress, are the exoticism and promise of a good time. The images depict: sun, nature, alluding to good food, fun and pleasure. In general the photos show us a glorified side of a country that is for most of us exotic and only occasionally attainable. The usual depictions of Spain are that it appeals to the senses and therefore pleasure is promised. The most common factors in the images of Spain are: food, landscapes (breath taking of course) and white washed walls and the stock blue sky.
My images and the exercise
What I have aimed for depicting in my images is in a sense the juxtaposition and contrast of the typical one sided scene that we are presented with in commercial photos. The juxtaposition attempts to show the pleasant appealing side as present but not dominant in the photo. I chose as my select photo the image of an abandoned house with the view moving from inside to outside. The inner scene of the photo depicts quite a different facet to Spain and Spanish villages (which exists in equal measure) to the one we are accustomed to seeing.
I’ve neither attempted to glorify a Spanish village nor hide the more unsightly from the viewer. This is different from the usual type of image in terms of emphasis. We are conditioned to see the pleasant and pretty. Whilst this photo is not outright ugly and I hope that I have achieved an element of aesthetic pleasure in the picture, it does not as such try to seduce.
Preparatory photos taken with the same theme
Pre-select photo (almost chosen)
This is the image that almost came up as the key select but then I realised that it did not offer a strong enough element of juxtaposition. It could be anywhere! So, I found myself reveling more in this image for the light and implied triangles than for the theme of the exercise.
Key select image for 4.5
Why this image? I felt that it was a creative response to the theme and the question. I have placed the viewer inside not outside and not looking at the entirety of the village scene, but rather a selection. The view from the window suggests that there is formal beauty with the whitewashed walls and hills and exotic plants. The inside scene is not one that is typically depicted with a photo of Spanish villages.
I gave the photo the provisional caption of ‘Spain is beautiful’
For looking at what I learned during this exercise it shall be included in the log notes section. In general, this exercise has challenged me to think as it were outside the box. It has caused me to think about our expectations of the visual and how quickly we become habituated to seeing things in a particular way and then made to believe that this is the only or most desirable way to see.
OCA log level 1 Photography 