Photographic Montage Project: Light

Photo Montage Project.

Original Idea

My original idea was based around the theme of light. When I was trying to think up a concept, I began to think a little more abstractly rather than just stick with the norm. With this, I decided to opt for a more physical way of presenting light, and so, went with my third idea, which was suspending cardboard light-bulbs from my ceiling, and coating them in tin-foil to provide a rudimentary texture. The idea worked to my advantage, because the shape of the light-bulb wasn’t too defined, so when it came to audience research, and finding out what people thought of my piece, it was open to interpretation. The idea started out as mounting the light-bulbs on a wall with picture hangers, but then evolved into suspending them from the ceiling, to give the piece a little more substance, and to add to the abstract nature.

In my own opinion, the subject of the photo was open to interpretation. I wanted to achieve this effect to give people a little more freedom in terms of what the photo actually meant to them, instead of sticking to a rigid definition of what I wanted it to mean. The subject of the photo that I wanted people to realise was light, and it’s physical representation. However, people made many different interpretations of what it was, which I believed was a good thing. When shooting, the subject came out just the way I wanted. After shooting around 30 shots, I realised that the final shot that I presented was by far the best.
The content of the photo was also subject to a lot of different interpretations. I knew, in my own mind, that the content was light-bulbs suspended from the ceiling using nylon string. However, to someone that had never seen the photo before, or had any idea of what it was supposed to represent, might have seen something completely different.
When I was coming up with my final idea, I wanted to have a defined outlook on shape. This meant that I wanted to put a little more attention into the sharpness of my lines, and making sure that everything could be seen easily.
In terms of form, the lines remained defined throughout the shoot. However, the nylon string was lost in the shooting process, which I thought was a welcome effect in the photo. Without the strings, it gives the photo a feel of weightlessness, which I thought worked to my advantage. Colour was also something that I wanted to take into consideration when shooting. This way, I could take the “dull” nature of the photo (Silver against Black), and inject it with some colour, provided by the lens flare effect.
My original audience was adults aged 31-40, who were interested in art, and contemporary photography. I chose this audience because I believed that the contemporary feel of my work would appeal to people in that field of work, or interest. My audience was niche, in the way that not many people are interested in fine art photography.

Production

When I was firmly stuck into the production, I started to work with the different elements of camera controls (Shutter Speed, ISO, etc).This gave me a lot more control over what I was actually shooting. So, instead of having a bland, simple photo, I was able to develop the elements of it a lot more, though the use of advanced functions. Another element of the photo that had evolved during the photographic process was how the light-bulbs were actually suspended. I had originally been using ordinary string, however, after one of these fell down, I sought a new method of keeping the light-bulbs suspended. And so, I started to experiment with (much darker) nylon string. By using this, I was able to achieve the fact that the bulbs were floating mid-air. Through changing the string that I used, I was able to give the photo an entirely different feel.
By changing tiny things about the photo, I was able to create new things that wouldn’t have been seen before. For example, without changing the camera settings, I wouldn’t have been able to create the lens flare effect, which consequently gave the photo a much needed burst of colour. The form of the photo was also changed by these small details, in the way that much more emphasis was placed on colour and texture, rather than the shadows created by the bulbs.
After careful consideration, I decided to change my target audience. Through audience research, I discovered that art students were far more receptive in terms of decoding the meaning of my photo, and be able to appreciate the use of colour etc at the same time.

Exhibition

As a group, we have opted to deliver our combined work via a Prezi presentation. We decided to show our work in this way, so that the audience can gain a little more information in terms of our thought processes, etc. We originally thought that we would show it in a print fashion, by printing out each of our photos and mounting them onto A3 paper. However, after further deliberation, we decided that a digital medium would be the best way to present our collaboration. We felt that a Prezi would be the best means of presentation, because of the unique way that information can spin and leap across the page. This would be a much more innovative way of showing our presentation when compared against the traditional print media, or PowerPoint presentation.
To assess our audience’s response to the presentation, we’ll ask some questions at the end of the presentation. These questions will enable us to gauge just how the audience felt after the presentation accurately.