JASON YI MIAD PROJECT
For Lily, Who Enjoys Reading |
OVERVIEW:
Title: "For Lily, Who Enjoys Reading" Dimensions: Medium: Photography, iPhone Date: March 2024 EXHIBITION TEXTI took inspiration from Maxi Magano to create this photograph of my favorite childhood activity. I used to come home from school, grab a snack, lay on a blanket in the sunshine, and read a book. When I was a kid, reading was how I saw the world. Now that I’m grown up I have a phone which gives me full access to the world around me. However, nothing will compare to the world I saw when I was a kid. Through books, I felt as though I was transported out of my home and into the stories I read about. I chose “The Secret Garden” to star in my photograph because it’s my favorite book. It was given to me by my great aunt who noticed my love of reading. This photograph's purpose is to portray the magic of childhood and inspire feelings of nostalgia.
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INSPIRATION
Maxi Magnano:
In Magnano's nostalgic photographs collection, she claimed she chose spaces to portray how we as humans "cultivate our spaces". Magnano stated in an interview that she uses inspiration mainly from her surrounding, the theme that connects my art together is how our environment affects our identities. In art, it is easy to draw inspiration from general sources so we can appeal to others easily but it is hard to portray ourselves in our art. Using my surrounding was something I knew I needed to keep in mind when planning for and creating this photograph. Magnano's photographs are often calm and surreal, in many of the photos it feels as though we ourselves have been in a similar place but we can't quite remember when it was we had seen something like that before. Maxi Magnano created a photo shoot of nostalgic scenes, she works with lighting and the placement of objects. In her two photographs above, she used shadows, light from the refrigerator or the ceiling light to create highlights and shadows. Magnano focuses heavily on the natural placement of her objects and uses the light sources in the room in many of her photos. I mainly used her photo to the right because there are books scattered across the desk and there is a reflection across the picture of the young girl. I took note of the simplicity of Magnano's nostalgic photographs collection, I noticed how even though many of the objects in her photo were likely staged, it looks as though they were naturally placed there.
In Magnano's nostalgic photographs collection, she claimed she chose spaces to portray how we as humans "cultivate our spaces". Magnano stated in an interview that she uses inspiration mainly from her surrounding, the theme that connects my art together is how our environment affects our identities. In art, it is easy to draw inspiration from general sources so we can appeal to others easily but it is hard to portray ourselves in our art. Using my surrounding was something I knew I needed to keep in mind when planning for and creating this photograph. Magnano's photographs are often calm and surreal, in many of the photos it feels as though we ourselves have been in a similar place but we can't quite remember when it was we had seen something like that before. Maxi Magnano created a photo shoot of nostalgic scenes, she works with lighting and the placement of objects. In her two photographs above, she used shadows, light from the refrigerator or the ceiling light to create highlights and shadows. Magnano focuses heavily on the natural placement of her objects and uses the light sources in the room in many of her photos. I mainly used her photo to the right because there are books scattered across the desk and there is a reflection across the picture of the young girl. I took note of the simplicity of Magnano's nostalgic photographs collection, I noticed how even though many of the objects in her photo were likely staged, it looks as though they were naturally placed there.
PLANNING
I sketched three different ideas for what kind of photo I wanted. I knew going into this project that I wanted to create a nostalgic scene and take a photo. I started thinking of my environment and what has affected me growing up, I thought of what I used to do when I got home which was to take my favorite book (The Secret Garden) and start reading it with a Capri Sun and a chocolate chip cookie. After I had that idea sketched out and annotated I thought of my neighborhood environment. I thought of the stream by my house and how I would always explore with my bucket and my childhood stuffed lamb. And finally, I decided to use literature from when I was a kid to represent a lesson I learned from a very early age. After reading the Lorax I had a profound love of nature, I was especially fond of my family's peach tree in our yard. I got the idea to surround the base of the tree with light and dark colored rocks from the scene in the Lorax when they surround the tree with rocks to mourn the loss of the fallen tree. The messages behind my ideas were to create a childlike image that people could connect to easily. After careful consideration I decided to go with my idea inspired by Maxi Magano and take a photograph of a scene from my childhood which would portray my love of reading.
I decided to use "The Secret Garden" as my center piece for this project because it was my favorite book as a kid. "The Secret Garden" was given to my by my great aunt who left a note inside the book claiming she was giving it to me because she noticed my love of reading. Throughout my life I have been surrounded by well-read, intelligent people, but receiving this book was the first time I felt included in my environment. "The Secret Garden" became relatable for me, as a kid, I had a wild imagination, I imagined I too would find a secret garden someday. The writing in green says, "To Lily, who enjoys reading".
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EXPERIMENTATION
After planning out my center piece and creating a general sketch I grabbed the materials I knew I was going to use. At first, I grabbed a few extra books to see what it would look like to have a more full picture, after putting the extra books in the picture I realized it took attention away from the center book so I took the extra books out and put "banana grams" in. "Banangrams" is a game I would play as a kid. I also used different background materials (the blankets). At first my plan was to use the carpet in my living room but I really liked the contrast the blankets added. When I first tried the white blanket I liked it because it added emphasis on the highlights, after looking around my house a little bit I found a yellow blanket which created an effect on the photo that looked like sunshine rays.
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I looked around on Pinterest and found settings for an iPhone camera and image. I found one that explained how to create a sunshine effect on your image. I experimented with different brightness levels, contrast levels, changing the color of my image, and emphasizing harsh shadows. I especially noticed how this effected the sunshine coming into the room and how it effected the reflection on the Gogosqueeze on the left.
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This was what my photo looked like after I experimented with the image settings. I liked how it made the center of the image look more calm and welcoming but I didn't like how the outside of the image was a little scary looking with the shadow contrast. Further into the project I lessened my experimentation with the shadow and contrast and focused more on the highlights.
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I realized after evaluating my images that the Gogosqueeze reflection on the book lined up perfectly with a similar color on the wall in the image on the book. I experimented with moving the Gogosqueeze around to emphasize this aspect of the photo. Eventually, I got a pretty good reflection from the Gogosqueeze and tried not to move the Gogosqueeze for the duration of the photoshoot.
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PROCESS
Once my experimentation was done and I knew which materials I wanted to use I started by placing my materials on the plain carpet to see where things looked the best. Keeping my experimentation with shadow and the reflection from the Gogosqueeze in mind I placed my materials inside a sunshine ray coming in from my large living room window. Once I was confident in my material placement I brought in the yellow blanket and tried to replace my materials on top of the blanket. To keep my placement the same as the image on the left, I used pins to mark the objects and when I placed the blanket on the ground there were slight indents where the pins were placed. I then put my materials on their marks and adjusted everything a little bit to fit the camera nicely. At this point I knew I had to move quickly because the sunshine rays were not guaranteed.
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Once I placed the blanket and all of my objects in their correct places I started using different angles of my camera. I started with a head on shot, I had to adjust the focus of my iPhone camera to accommodate the direction of the sunshine rays. I realized I didn't like the direction of the shadows with the head on shot so I attempted to take a picture from my perspective which was laying down. I laid down and held the phone up to where my eyes were. This required some adjustment since I struggled with keeping my hand from shaking, this can be seen in the slightly slanted image to the left.
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After my experimentation with shadows, I realized I got the best shadows by angling my camera from bottom to top and slightly to the left. This angle accentuated the shadows coming from the Gogosqueeze and the window. I re situated my Oreo a few times because the sun kept moving which meant every once in a while I had to shift an object so it was in the sunlight.
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At this point I was getting frustrated with the suns movement so I took a very angled picture from the left and actually loved it. The shadow coming from the Gogosqueeze and the highlights on the book cover and Banangrams were exactly what I wanted them to be. As I continued I kept in mind where the light was hitting the pink parts of the book cover and where the highlights were on the Bananagram tiles. I moved some of the Bananagram tiles to be more in the sunlight. In my next stage I used a very similar angle but made a few more adjustments.
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This was the last picture I took before my final picture. I lessened the angle of my camera to keep it at a more natural perspective. The highlights on the Bananagram game, Gogosqueeze, and book cover were almost perfect. Before I took my final picture I readjusted my book to be more situated in the light and tipped my camera up a little more. Once I had my final picture I looked over all the photos I had taken to make sure my last photo was the best option.
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CRITIQUE
Compare:
The main things I wanted to remain the same between mine and Maxi Magnano's photography was the shadow work, highlights, and nostalgic objects. I feel I succeeded in the highlights work, I, like Maxi Magnano used a more neutral background to keep the attention on my center objects. I allowed the natural shadows from the objects to take effect in my image and only slightly adjusted them with my camera angle. I chose objects that were personal to me but that could also be relatable to others. I chose generic objects like an Oreo and a Gogosqueeze much like Magnano used a radio and a magazine article on the desk. I also liked the way Magnano angled her camera, it looks as though she just walked into a room and took a picture, I used a similar technique by holding my camera up to my eyes to take the photo from my perspective. Finally, I manipulated the light in my room to draw attention to specific objects. I moved the Gogosqueeze and Bananagrams to get light from my window much like Magnano allowed the light in her room to strike across the images of the young girls.
Contrast:
Magnano's nostalgic photography focuses on a scene or a room, my photography focused on specific objects that I had chosen to portray a specific moment in time from my childhood. In Magnano's image above, she may have placed some items but for the most part it looks as though the objects are naturally there. I attempted to do the same in my photo but ultimately, I was not able to convincingly create a scene that looked as though all the objects had been naturally placed. Magnano's photographs also focus on more neutral or diluted colors whereas in my photo there is a vibrant green in the book cover and the yellow from the blanket is even more bright because the sun is hitting it. I also chose colors that stand out against the yellow blanket whereas Magnano's work feels more calm and settled. Magnano also uses electric light in her photography whereas I was working with the natural light from the sun. As such, Magnano's photographs have a more indoor feel, in my photograph, I wanted viewers to feel as though they themselves were sitting in sunlight reading a book.
The main things I wanted to remain the same between mine and Maxi Magnano's photography was the shadow work, highlights, and nostalgic objects. I feel I succeeded in the highlights work, I, like Maxi Magnano used a more neutral background to keep the attention on my center objects. I allowed the natural shadows from the objects to take effect in my image and only slightly adjusted them with my camera angle. I chose objects that were personal to me but that could also be relatable to others. I chose generic objects like an Oreo and a Gogosqueeze much like Magnano used a radio and a magazine article on the desk. I also liked the way Magnano angled her camera, it looks as though she just walked into a room and took a picture, I used a similar technique by holding my camera up to my eyes to take the photo from my perspective. Finally, I manipulated the light in my room to draw attention to specific objects. I moved the Gogosqueeze and Bananagrams to get light from my window much like Magnano allowed the light in her room to strike across the images of the young girls.
Contrast:
Magnano's nostalgic photography focuses on a scene or a room, my photography focused on specific objects that I had chosen to portray a specific moment in time from my childhood. In Magnano's image above, she may have placed some items but for the most part it looks as though the objects are naturally there. I attempted to do the same in my photo but ultimately, I was not able to convincingly create a scene that looked as though all the objects had been naturally placed. Magnano's photographs also focus on more neutral or diluted colors whereas in my photo there is a vibrant green in the book cover and the yellow from the blanket is even more bright because the sun is hitting it. I also chose colors that stand out against the yellow blanket whereas Magnano's work feels more calm and settled. Magnano also uses electric light in her photography whereas I was working with the natural light from the sun. As such, Magnano's photographs have a more indoor feel, in my photograph, I wanted viewers to feel as though they themselves were sitting in sunlight reading a book.
REFLECTION
This was the first time I worked solely with photography. In the past, I have had to photograph my art work but that was always in a studio setting and I was told exactly which setting my camera had to be at and which angle to take it from to have the least amount of shadow and glare on my artwork. In this project I was given complete freedom regarding the scene I wanted to photograph and the concept behind my photograph. I was able to explore how to utilize shadows and highlights as well as how to manipulate my camera and surroundings to create a scene that I wanted. With Maxi Magnano as my inspiration I was able to get a better understanding of how to create emotion in a photograph. I have always had an easy time painting feelings but explaining those feelings in a photograph was daunting. In my experimentation, I explored the use of objects, contrast, and my iPhone camera settings. In that process I was able to experiment with manipulating a photo by editing the contrast, shadow, and highlights levels on my camera. Overall, this project helped me to better understand how I can use photography in the future to tell a story with my art, especially when I am required to have a professional image of my art work, having a better understanding of how to take good pictures is a skill I will need in the future.
Check list
ACT
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
- I took a photo of a scene from my childhood. Growing up, my environment was books, I used stories to learn about the world and dream.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
- Maxi Magnano used her photography skills to create scenes that held nostalgia, she often photographed scenes from her own background.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
- I discovered that people use photography to tell a story about their culture, beliefs, emotions, etc.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?.
- In my research I wanted to have a better understanding of how photographers create emotion in their photos, in my case I wanted to better understand how I could create a scene that people could feel nostalgic about.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
- I made the inference that Magnano photographed scenes that were nostalgic to her since my research never fully covered that topic. I was also able to infer that nostalgic scenes are different for everyone.
ACT
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
- I took a photo of a scene from my childhood. Growing up, my environment was books, I used stories to learn about the world and dream.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
- Maxi Magnano used her photography skills to create scenes that held nostalgia, she often photographed scenes from her own background.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
- I discovered that people use photography to tell a story about their culture, beliefs, emotions, etc.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?.
- In my research I wanted to have a better understanding of how photographers create emotion in their photos, in my case I wanted to better understand how I could create a scene that people could feel nostalgic about.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
- I made the inference that Magnano photographed scenes that were nostalgic to her since my research never fully covered that topic. I was also able to infer that nostalgic scenes are different for everyone.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
https://www.gessato.com/maxi-magnano-photography/maxi-magnano-photography-gessato-8/
https://www.lomography.com/magazine/345671-interview-with-maxi-magnano
https://www.lomography.com/magazine/345671-interview-with-maxi-magnano