Constructed Reality

King of the Jungle

Identity

Identity

Identity

Write up of the series, "King of the Jungle".
Composition: The most important piece of these photographs is the lion costume that the little boy, Tucker, is wearing. To emphasis it I mostly used the back lighting of a setting sun. It helped add contrast and reinforced the innocence of a child. I also tried to keep the background as blurred as possible so that it was clear what Tucker was in front of without making the background a focal point.
Concept: It was important to keep these images a series and not display them by themselves. They are stronger together because they show the change of a person in one identity. Starting with the first, they progress from the lion identity to Tucker's human identity. This is interesting as it is somewhat ironic. All of the images have the same person and in every photograph he is being himself. However, there is still a sense of a second identity because he does not always wear or identify himself as a lion [in costume]. For me, it is fun to see his shift in identity as a lion and personality. By the last photograph he was anxious to end the photo shoot.
Method: This series would be much different had I photographed an adult. By using a child, the concept of a second identity becomes more apparent. A child, especially Tucker, is more likely to want to please you and be more carefree than an adult. I think that children often do things to please or entertain adults. In order to get these shots I tried to make this an event and to him almost candid. Since I was trying to make this a fun opportunity for him, he was more likely to listen to me. At the same time, he was not going to do everything that I told him, which brought out more of his personality than mine.
Motivations: One of the reasons I like this series so much is because of my relationship with Tucker. He is my cousin and we are very close, which I think is why he was allowed me to dress him up and take his picture. Just as much as I wanted to show Tucker's shift in a second identity, I also wanted to try to capture our closeness.
Context: I thought to take Tucker's photograph when I saw an image from the last blog prompt. It was an image of a little girl sitting sideways and appearing to be distracted by her surrounding. After seeing this I thought it would be fun to photograph Tucker and to see how he would act when I asked him to do something out of the ordinary from his everyday life. This series could be considered one on social situations. Even if it was an adult, I think these images could be taken as a series of someone's inner person- someone/something that they cannot be when in a public setting.
Interpretation: A few people commented on these photographs and said that they reminded them of "Where the Wild Things Are". Others said that it took them back to when they were children and played dress up, or when everything was simplistic, happy, and carefree. 
Evaluation: Everyone agreed that the lighting worked well for bringing out the innocence of a child and also increased the amount of contrast. The background was not working for some people, which I can agree with. I also think it would help to blur the background more, or try to take the photograph in a different scene.
Extension: Someone commented on wanting to see more of his "true" identity, or more of his personality. It was suggested to make the series larger with the photographs I had taken of him without the costume.

Object/Collage/Illusion

Composition: Since this is a collage, the background elements are very important because they create an illusion. The framing is also important because it reinforces the illusion and collage by not giving much context. In addition, the vertical orientation was more successful at giving enough information (but not too much) opposed to the horizontal orientation.
Concept: This actually started out as an accidental image. I had taken a photograph of my computer screen before so this time was more of an experiment. I like that it turned out to be such an abstract piece.
Method: Also an accident, I like all of the various light sources, which really made each part to this collage appear so different.  In a sense everything in this photograph is constructed. Nothing in the image was just found and only one of the objects is tangible.
Context: While we were first starting to learn about constructed photography I never saw myself creating such elaborate miniature stages or large scale scenes. I think that this photograph helped me to realize that a constructed image does not have to be a narrative or have a lot of planned/hand made detail.
Interpretation: I'm not sure that people knew what to make of this image. However, people recognized it as an abstract collage and commented on the play of space/illusion.
Evaluation: The texture and the blocks of color are working well, but someone suggested to add more color to add more contrast. I did try to add more color in the other attempts to recreate an image like this, but I felt that those were more recognizable and were not as abstracted.