The elements of design and design principles are the building blocks of composition. This project involved looking at the ordinary world as a source of raw material and inspiration. Students were to apply elements of design and design principles to their photographs. The subject matter was entirely up to the individual student. It was interesting to me because I could see what each student liked to photograph. Some of the elements you might see present in the photographs are: line, shape, form, space, value and texture. Some design principles are: unity, balance (asymmetry and symmetry), emphasis/focal point, repetition/pattern, movement/direction, contrast and rhythm. The first two were by Hyeonjin (Jun) Kim. They are beautiful panoramas.
The next photograph was by Beka Anderson. It is a great example of contrast and texture.
The next photograph is by Cailin Lainier. It has such a sense of joy and showcases balance and movement.
The next photograph is by Carissa Howland. Carissa has done some wonderful photographs of moments with her friends. I particularly liked the vantage point of this one and the texture of the hair.
The next three photographs are by Deng (Eason) Feng. The first is very much about form in space.
This next photograph utilizes reflection and is a great example of balance and emphasis.
The last of Eason’s is very much about line and shape. I love shots like this from a plane.
This photograph is by Kelea Browne. I love the gesture of her friend. It illustrates focal point and emphasis and also form and space.
This photograph is by Hannah Hobbs-Mallyon. She photographed this image in her bedroom and it shows asymmetry and form.
The next photograph is excellent for leading lines and contrast by Jake Wong.
Darung Leng took this next photograph. It is a great example of shallow depth of field and line work.
Tyler Griffin photographed some beautiful nature images. I love the smoothness of the water and the sense of movement.
The last two are by Yicun (Isabella) Liu. This one is great for symmetry and texture as well as focal point.
This one utilizes form and space as well as symmetry and emphasis.
Sometimes I think the pinhole photography assignment is the best project all quarter! We always do it at the start of the quarter. It is a great introduction to aperture (size of pinhole) and shutter speed (how long you expose). Students create cameras that are many different sizes from Altoids canisters to tea and cookie tins. I love it when students personalize their cameras like these first ones. This one is by Cailin Lanier.
The next is by Beka Anderson.
Cailin and Beka posed for the their positive pinhole on the stairs.
One more pinhole camera is by Isabella Liu.
The next pinhole negative is by Gabrielle Larsen.
I like the positive version as well.
The following negative pinhole is an image of some of the architecture at Bellevue College. I like the way the trees look. This photograph is by Isabella Liu.
Another scene of the same building shows some beautiful cloud reflections in the windows of the same building. It is a positive pinhole by Sam Ethington.
I like the next negative and positive version by Eason Feng.
Eason also took the next photograph in the hallway of the art building. Student self-portraits are hanging on the wall.
The next positive is by Gillian Peterson. I really like the flower she captured.
The next two are by Gillian as well. Captain America!
Jun Kim did the next pinhole both negative and positive.
The next close up is by Jannie Phan. I like the distortion!
Ashley Johnston took this self-portrait. I love the pose!
The following negative and positive pinholes are by Paulina Hui.
The next pinhole positive shows a beautiful design by Kirin Kim.
Jin Sun did the next pinhole positive.
The last pinhole is by Riley Pascual.
Steve Groves decided to build a series of images that emulated the black and white films from the past. His body of work using the same two models wasn’t so much a story as an adventure in different lighting techniques trying to replicate the older films from Hollywood. The first photograph was a Hollywood glamour shot of Steve’s female model. Steve’s inspiration was Breakfast at Tiffany’s with Audrey Hepburn.
The next image was depicting Phantom of the Opera. Steve used a two light setup with a high powered light aimed at the Phantom’s face to mimic the bright white of a porcelain mask.
The next image was from Dracula. Steve lit the scene with a pair of lights emphasizing contrast.
This next film noir shot of a detective was lit from outside a window, through half closed blinds.
The next photograph was replicating Alfred Hitchcock lighting which was the most difficult to achieve. It is lit using a three light setup and took an hour to get it just right.
The next photograph gives the feel of Broadway and is entitled American Bandstand. Steve used a homemade ring light as a backdrop.
The last image replicated a Clint Eastwood Western. This image was shot with a white muslin backdrop and composited with a background image of a desert.
The final project this winter quarter involved a cohesive body of images that included a written text. Students illustrated poems, told linear stories and became philosophical about their work. Most students had at least seven photographs. Here are some highlights. The first body of work was by Jessica Kong. Her work was entitled Women in Environment. She wants the viewer to use their imagination about what is going on in the image and provided little text.
The next few images are by Carlyle Moore. Carlyle wrote a poem called The Message. His inspiration started when he found an old phone book. He started envisioning the lives of the people in the phone book. Here are some of his words…..torn and abandoned riddled with dirt, I connect the dots with a brittle old phone book, minus the typewriter. A glass house full of memories hides behind a locked door as anonymous creatures lurk about in the background…..
The next photographs are by Brigid Krause. She illustrated a poem. Here are her words….streamed straight to the bone, as if you were the room closed in glass, with every speck of dust illuminated…
…the light is no mystery….
…the mystery is that there is something to keep the light from passing through.
The next images are by Julie Ling. A young boy ran into a pair of shoes that caught his attention…
They belonged to a girl. He admired her beauty on one of their walks together.
He lost her and to this day goes on walks by himself on the trails they walked upon. He imagines her next to him but there is no one there.
The next four images are by Karolina Shirokova. Karolina did double exposures by the water in nature and in the city. Her poem is called Stuck. She has a fear of the future. She doesn’t know where to go. She wants to be brave but she’s scared of the unknown. She wants to be free, yet she’s still stuck. She’s trying to tear down walls without any luck. She wants to escape; yet something is holding her back. She is trapped in the past not being able to let go.
The next set of photographs is by Kim Lam. Kim is experiencing a long distance relationship. She used photographs placed in her images…your images are pretty much everywhere I go because we went there together. My memory is full of our memories. Sometimes I feel really empty because you are not here. I miss you and I love you….
Robert Lung used photos within the following images as well. In his case, the photo was of his father who died when Robert was only four years old. Robert carries his photo in his wallet everywhere he goes…it means he is always with me.
Kenny Wang was interested in taking pictures of people who were unaware of his camera and acting natural. He captured some beautiful moments.
Fuli Lan photographed his girlfriend at Rattlesnake Lake. His words…in these photographs I want to create a story about my girlfriend who meets me in a dream.
Brock Anderson had an interesting body of work showing nature and evidence of man. His words….there was a time in our ancient history when humans understood things—important things that are now only observed in nature, but still mostly ignored, forgotten or repressed. His work also included a door, an opening, an invitation to open the door and experience the freedom of birds. I feel like the next two go together somehow.
Ashley Perrin’s narrative was about people waiting for God. She photographed herself in the grass with a beautiful crystal wand.
Her friend by the water.
And another friend studying yoga.
Young Park photographed a day with his friend who has left to go back to her country. He has these images as memories. This was their day together in Seattle.
Environmental portraits are photographs of an individual taken in their surroundings, usually the places where they live, work or play. Ideally, the background informs the viewer about the person. However, it could be an environment that is a fabricated reality. Classic portraiture usually focuses on the individual often with shallow depth of field. This assignment required three photographs from each student. One had to be a classic portrait with shallow depth of field. Another had to be an environmental portrait with great depth of field and lastly, one had to express motion by using different shutter speeds. Students could photograph the same person for all three photographs or different people. Here are some of the results. The first few images are by Jessica Kong. I love the high contrast lighting in this one.
The next photograph is an environmental portrait showing more of the little kid’s room. It is much softer.
The last one is Jessica’s photograph expressing motion.
The next photograph is a classic portrait by Steve Groves.
The following photograph is a motion one by Karolina Shirokova.
Her other two classic portraits are of her sister.
The next two images are by Ya-Yen Ou. They are both environmental portraits.
The next photograph is a self-portrait by Ashley Perrin.
The following two images are by Carylye Moore. The first is his motion photograph.
The next one is his classic portrait.
Jonathan Heeter photographed the next two. The first one is a self-portrait. I love the window lighting.
The next photograph is of his brother at the computer. Motion is expressed with his hands.
The following photograph is by Claire Tai. It is an environmental self-portrait.
Debbie Chan photographed her sister in the mirror in the next photograph.
Shanzuo Liu photographed the next two images.
This one is magical.
Victoria DeMers photographed some candid shots with her son.
Leah Hayes photographed her friend selling flowers in a flower shop.
The last two photographs are taken by Young Park outside the Seattle Library downtown. The first is an environmental portrait of his friend.
The second one is an environmental self-portrait.
I didn’t get a chance to post Steve Groves’ form and texture photographs. The first was a studio shot where he worked with a model for his “form” photograph. It is soft and monochromatic. Steve utilized his studio equipped with a leaf blower for her hair! His image for texture is part of a series of faces up close. The texture is amazing!
It was a sunny 60 degree Monday in January when the class went on a field trip to Mercer Slough. What precipitated the trip was an exhibition at Bellevue College by Ellen Sollod. Ellen showed an interesting body of work consisting mainly of pinhole photographs entitled Lake Washington Palimpsest, an exploration of the environmental impact of the lowering of the lake that happened as a result of the building of Montlake Cut and the Ship Canal. Part of the project was a camera obscura she set up in the breakfast room of Frederick Winters House at Mercer Slough. After the Slough was drained, Winters built a house and bought 10 acres for a commercial floral business. The house now stands as an historic site. Not far down the path is the remains of the Boiler Building where there were paper whites blooming as part of the exhibit. Students experienced the camera obscura and then went on a hike past the Boiler Building and into the Slough. Here are some of their images. The first is a nice image of the house by Fuli Lan.
Here is an image of the Boiler Building by Karolina Shirokova.
The following image is by Ya-Yen Ou of part of the path that led out into the Slough.
Carylyle Moore’s view of the path was somewhat different!
This is a lovely view of texture utilizing shallow depth of field by Jordan Pickett.
Steve Groves captured this view of the water. The colors that day were amazing!
Here is a view by Jessica Kong.
Finally, another image of the house by Kim Lam. This is the view from the parking lot.
