Mini Paper Intro/Draft

Michelle LaRosa                                                                                                         9/21/11

Paper 1                                                                                                                        Dr. Devine

After capturing all of my photos, it became clear to me that they were all pictures of items that I own: my jewelry box, my desk, my ITunes card, my poster… etc. I seemed to gravitate toward things that were safe and familiar to me. I think the fact that I didn’t go out and take pictures of things I didn’t own gives this collection a theme of vulnerability. What I mean by this is, taking a risk and taking a photo that was more out of the box would have made me feel vulnerable, therefore I stuck to the familiar. On the other hand, none of the photos had any darkness to them, and they were all portrayed in fairly bright lighting. This gives the collection an undertone of happiness and lightheartedness. Both of these themes represent me because I tend to feel vulnerable when expressing my own ideas, such as pictures, but at the same time I also try and keep life as lighthearted as possible.

The photo I chose to focus on is filled with objects, and is generally very cluttered. When I first look at the photo, all I see is the confusion and I am not sure what to focus on. The color scheme in the picture tends to be mostly shades of blue and red. The object in the foreground that I would consider to be the main focal point is a Tim Hortons coffee cup. The reason it stands out is because it is the largest object in the photo, and it is also closer to the camera than all of the other objects. There are warnings all over the coffee cup that say ”Hot!” “Caution!” and “Careful!”.  The other objects in the foreground are a computer, a pair of headphones, some dry erase markers, the bottom of a lamp, a tissue box, and a pair of scissors. These items stand out less than the coffee cup, but still seem to be points of focus in the picture. In the background of the photo you can see shark printed sheets, a plaid comforter, and a horizontal metal bar. Although these aspects are more difficult to spot, they are of vital importance to the integrity of the photo.

When first looking at the main focal point, the coffee cup, it has an obvious meaning of needing caffeine to get through the day. But looking closer, the warnings on the cup could represent over cautiousness.  I have always had a problem with stress and anxiety, as most do, and so I am generally over cautious about a lot of things in life. These warnings represent that part of me well because of the blatant stressful tone that it brings to the picture. As for the shark printed sheets, they bring a subtle quirky undertone to the photo. The metal bar locks away that part of the picture and cuts it away from the rest of the picture. This also represented my personality because I have a subtle quirkiness that I tend not to show to most people, therefore it is somewhat locked away. The overall brightness of the photo also struck me. There is not a direct light source per say, but rather the entire photo is represented in a bright light. I think this is a really good illustration of how I am overall lighthearted. Even though there is an element of stress and clutter in this picture, it never loses its bright and cheery feel which is what I wanted to focus on. Rather than portraying it in a dark and dreary theme, I chose to take the picture in a bright setting with a generally cheerful color palette. I think this says something about my thoughts when I took the picture, and how I wanted my happier side to show through.

In essence, this photo has a theme overall happiness and lightheartedness, with undertones of stress, quirkiness, and clutter. This is a complete self representation, because that is exactly how I think my personality works. In a more general sense, this picture also showed all of my favorite pastimes such as music, coffee, writing, etc.  As a whole, I think all of the pictures I took represented how I like to stick to things that are familiar and close to me, and the collection shows my vulnerability. All of the aspects in the photo I chose are a non-literal self portrait of myself.