Exploring and Developing Photographic Concepts

Lindsey Selden

Throughout this entire semester, there have been certain works I have seen that stuck with me the entire time. Finding pictures that I can relate to, or that I believe really are saying a lot to me, are photographs that I tend to love. The ideas that I am exploring in these photos are the ideas of Lauren Greenfield. She did a collection called, “Girl Culture”, capturing the most intimate moments with her subjects, when they are most vulnerable in a girly way. She told a story through her photos by displaying the harsh reality of what girls go through now days, and that is exactly what I also tried to convey through my photos. The relationship between the media and young woman is constantly changing. Always expecting more perfection from the female gender. As a young woman myself, I can really relate to these photos and feels the pressure and see the pressures my friends go to and that is why I am so drawn to do my project on her work. By taking these photos and sending messages to viewers, I feel like the pictures can say so much more than words. Physically seeing what girls are doing the themselves rather than hearing about it can make a much bigger impact. Although my photos were very similar to Lauren’s, they were also much different. I did all of my photos in black in white and Greenfield’s were almost all in color. I felt that the border and black and white affect really made the photos more dramatic and isolated.  Lauren Greenfield’s work was probably the number one emotion evoking and relatable photographs I have seen this past semester. I am passionate about girls not trying to alter themselves for someone else and I believe these types of photos are actually a positive way to help women. 

This photo is probably the one I took most similar to Lauren Greenfield's photos. This really depicts just about everything she was trying to say in her photos from Girl Culture, as well as what I have been trying to say in this blog. The scale represents a huge problem of weight in our culture, mainly the influences from things like celebrities on the magazines on the floor. Mainly from the media, girls are growing into believe they have to look and act a certain way.

I took this photo when I recently went on a vacation of a bunch of the young girls from families I was vacationing with. Its fairly normal to see a bunch of high school girls take pictures in their swim suits. But when the 4 and 5 year old ran into the picture with them it was kind of weird. These little girls are dressed in these tiny bikinis just like the girls 12 years older behind them. Its crazy how much has changed and how at such a young age now, little girls are trying to do what all of the older girls do. The culture today is completely changing and girls are worrying about their looks way to early and way too much.

This photo was taken on the inside of my friends bathroom. Its just an everyday thing to most girls, but when you really look at it, its very disturbing. It is insane the effects the media has on young women today. All of these photos are of extremely skinny, gorgeous, and air brushed models. The fact that its their in her bathroom everyday reminding her of what she "should" look like is disturbing. Girls should not be this influenced by looks. Just like Lauren Greenfield shows in her photos how greatly younger girls are affected by things like this.

After I took this photo, I know it was something worth a thousand words. This photo is the definition of girls having fun. Completely candid, I believe this photo grasps the exact ideal of these girls all dresses up to impress like the are expected. But they seem to cut out of the norm and just be dancing with their friends without a care in the world. Unfortunately, it is rare today to see girls relax and fully be themselves, its like we always have to put on a fake demeanor to impress people.

I took this photo recently of some of my friends getting ready for a night out. One girl is sitting having her hair and make up done by two of my friends dressed all fancy in high heels and all the works. Its like today our culture expects women to put so much effort into looking amazing every single night, making girls feel actually a lot more self conscious because they are always worried about their looks.

This photo graph I took of a couple of my friends on my sorority bid day. All the girls have huge smiles on their faces like its the best day of their lives. They are all in matching clothes and have their hair and make up done. The thing about sororities now is it seems like so many colleges expect you to be in one now. A lot of people have the idea that if you are not in Greek like you are unpopular which is completely untrue, but unfortunately is become a huge thought in our culture.

Lighting

I thought lighting would be a good topic to choose with the sequins on the shoes and the different color background. For all of these I turned all of lights off in my room and used one lamp that moves to create different lighting. The first one a tried a dead on lighting to get the most of the shoes that I could. The second one I tried to see what would happen if the light was aimed primarily at the toe of the shoes. Then lastly I did the light from down below the shoes and it really light up specific parts of the shoes and left others in the shadows creating different looks.

Asymmetrical Balance

Asymmetrical balance as opposed to regular balance means it is not perfectly placed the same for both sides or both objects. The interesting thing about high heeled shoes is that they have so many angles and points to them that they can capture a really unique shot. By placing different ends of the shoe on completely different parts of the other shoe it creates a unique alignment or balance. Not one of these photos has the exact same look if you cut the picture in half and thats what asymmetrical is.

Texture

The main reason I chose the show as my main object to photograph was because of the texture of it's sequins. I of course had to get the up close shot for one of these and capture the black and silver sequins. They really brought in light to reflect its texture even better. The second photo a decided to capture the rough leather on the heel of the shoe.  Then the last photograph is the softer, more relaxed leather on the inside sole of the shoe.

Vantage Point

For the first Photo I used only the back tire of the bike very close up and focused on it while allowing bikes in the background to be out of focus. I thought captures bike through a bike tire would be and interesting vantage point. For the second photo I focused the foreground on the back tire but from a different angle. It allowed the whole bike behind the tire to be out of focus but still allowing the entire bike into view. The third picture I tried to get a completely different angle of the bike by focusing the foreground of the handle bars and some of the mid-ground for an entire new view.

Photographic Perspectives