image of me above by Olivia Joyner

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am now in an intro level photography class. Here are some things about it:

1. My teacher is big into "the photograph as contemporary art". And this means that the whole class is based around the opposite of what I want to do. Josh likes the idea of the photographer fabricating an image and creating it for the purpose of art. I like the idea of capturing and documenting what is already there, and not interfering with it in the process of doing so.

2. My teacher is also colorblind.

3. We just finished critiquing our first projects. That is why I am writing this.

Our instruction for this project was vague; all we were really told was to construct an image and photograph it, and if needed, pull inspiration from our textbook: Charlotte Cotton's The Photograph as Contemporary Art. Here is what I came up with.

People Biting Lemons. 

I wanted to do something that fit the criteria of the assignment (a constructed image) but at the same time was a spontaneous action that I was documenting. These people (likely) wouldn't have been biting into slices of lemons on a sunny day in Forsyth park without being asked to do so, therefore, it is "constructed". On the other hand, I wasn't telling these people what to do besides "bite into the lemon". The way that they did it, how long they did it, what faces they made, etc. was up to them. I simply captured what was in front of me.

Here is a sliding gallery. Click on the right side of the image to see more.

As this is my first project of this year (and in a while) I'm trying to be easy on myself. I pushed myself to talk to strangers (not easy for me) and not only talk to them, but also to let me take a portrait of them while they bit a lemon... I tried to compose the photographs well and edit accordingly. Of course, going back, there are some things that I certainly would have done differently, but it's a learning experience. Overall, I'm happy with how this one turned out.

More projects to come...