Monday, 2 May 2016

Final Project - Final Photographs


Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever... it remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything.”  American Photographer Aaron Siskind states that photography has many aspects to its fine arts reputation as it gives us a sense of being. Photography is our very own gratification that we can construct and modify to create a perspective and perceive it to the world. The power of photography defines the timing, morality and memory of the moment with one capture which will imprint into the human mind forever and I completely agree with him. However, war photojournalism is a subject matter which is hardly ever discussed as it is important and iconic to modern day society. The digital age we live in today has effected society as historic photographs aren’t cherished enough. Technology has significantly enhanced from Robert Capa’s Black and White era to the ‘Selfie’ generation which has changed the perception of photography forever. The purpose of combat photojournalism is not to showcase or glorify violence and suffering with graphic imagery for the sake of shock value and ratings. War photography allows us as a society to see the consequences of our military engagements. We need to see the consequences of our decisions to go to war, or to abstain from war, that we may make an informed decision as to whether the necessity of that military engagement is worth the suffering and death that follows. Additionally, we cannot allow ourselves to be lulled into the convenient attitude that war is something that happens "Over there" and go about our day. We who are not "Over there" fighting a war are still responsible for our government and the choices that it makes because we can't see the conflict first hand, we have photojournalists that send us combat imagery. That also doesn't mean that war photography is always meant to prevent or halt war though it's a philosophical debate that doesn't belong in the photography section, sometimes a war may be justified to continue even with full knowledge of the suffering that follows, depending on situation. It may even lead a nation to engage in a war, if they see atrocities committed by another country that they simply cannot abide. Regardless, combat photography shows us that our military conflicts have consequences, that real people suffer sometimes terribly and that everyone involved is human. My objective for this whole war theme was to replicate the advantages and disadvantages of war. Many people believe that war is a memory which has destroyed the nation, in fact its more than that. The official definition of war is “a state of armed conflict between different countries or different groups within a country.” However, to me, War is a gratification that we should cherish and desire as these violent memories and actions only make us stronger, together we should remember the good and bad doings as it is one of the main reasons why we have what we got today. These photographs depict toy soldiers stuck into the grass, with digital manipulation used to replicate the war periods. I have chosen these photographs as my final photographs because it has the features and admiration of being the most similar to relating to the theme of war. These photographs were taken in Primrose Hill where the grass can be manipulated into a war battlefield. The composition of the photograph is really effective as it portrays the depth of field. The depth has managed to capture the detail of the main focus. The camera angle and position is well positioned as the perspective is manipulated into thinking that this photograph was taken in a historic time period where combat is placed. Additionally, I have edited these photographs on Adobe Photoshop by changing the effects such as using grayscale and sepia to create a historic and ancient ambience in the photographs. I have also used the tilt-shift effect to create a diorama illusion in some of these photographs. These effects help to establish the detail, tone and texture of the photograph as well as building a illusion to fabricate a reality. Moreover, the lighting in this photograph is really effective as the bright exposure captures the dark shadows and highlights. This helps to establish the depressing and dark mood which depicts the violence and conflict in this photograph. In hindsight, I believe I could have improved this photograph by using a different prop. This means I could have used a more technical and realistic toy soldier to play a part in this photograph, just like David Levinthal who uses realistic toys to create intriguing scenes. The project came out of my desire to capture how our society is evolved around social media, rather than focusing on the aggression and violence around the world. We are so consumed by social media that we create a hyper reality to live in, which is built upon deception conceive into a utopian realm that doesn’t exist. Conflict is increasing significantly and will only become a superior problem.









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