Photo Montage

Critique

Ariel’s photo book is a collection of black and white photographs centered on capturing different fears people possess. These specific fears share no interlinked experience, rather they are simple fears each individual has the capacity to experience. Some of her fears include the fear of drowning, the fear of growing up and the fear of abandonment. While some of the fears depicted in her book jump out at you, others take more time to digest.

I believe the way in which Ariel arranged her photographs proved to be quite effective. The fact that each page does not relate to the next forced me to slow my pace when viewing this book. With the turn of each page, I carefully would examine every inch of each photograph, trying to distinguish which fear was being depicted. Each fear depicted is not made overly obvious by Ariel, she forces you to take time and think about what the subject could possibly be afraid of, and then BANG, it hits you. Its almost as if each time I turn the page I’m experiencing the moment of fear the subject experiences; first there is the state of confusion, and slowly I began to figure out what’s going on, and out of nowhere, the fear abruptly unmasks itself.

Ariel effectively used the principals of contrast and shadowing to her advantage when she created each of these photographs. For instance, in photograph 5 Ariel effectively created the monster attempting to harm the frightened little child by using shadows. Not to mention that the variety of contrast apparent in this photograph allows for the viewer to see the actual fear portrayed in the subjects body language, more specifically the fear shown in her facial expression. In her third photograph, she effectively uses lines created by the stairwell to frame her subject who appears to be chasing her.

Ariel's book did not simply provide me with a overall mood or meaning, rather it provided me with a plethora of moods leading to an epiphany, fear is like a piece of artwork. While some understand the conceptual or intellectual meaning of a photograph right away, others may never extract meaning from it other than the overall beauty it creates. Fears are the same way in the sense that some people have fears of things such as drowning or abandonment while others will never experience these fears. Like artwork, the perception of fear is in the eye of the beholder.

Photo Montage Project

For my photo montage assignment, I plan to create a still life similar in style to the photograph posted below by David Hockney. I have not decided whether or not to incorperate people into my scene, or whether to create a still life with only objects. I intend to photograph my still life under lighting conditions that create a minimal amount of shadows, because I feel that in my still life I would like to have light relatively balanced throughout the entire photograph and focus my efforts to playing with the shapes of the vases, cups, dishes bowls, or any other objects I decide to photograph.

David hill photograph