What Inspires My Photos?
Part 2
In my last post, I spoke about my first single photo assignment. To recap: for that assignment, I decided to photograph how depression made me feel. This idea came to me after a few different failed shoots. Though this was a very stressful experience, it helped to open my mind just a bit to think of concepts that I have the resources to shoot successfully. However, it wasn’t until the second single picture assignment that I actually realized what my limits were.
Single Picture Story #2
For this assignment, I knew that I wanted to make something that revolved around religious trauma. My ideas still were a little bit large. Originally, I wanted to take photos inside of a church that had a darker theme. Blood and demonic symbols were to be juxtaposed with a feeling of holiness. I planned for shots inside a confession booth and staring up into the stained glass windows. My inspiration photos are below.
Now, these photos were going to look really cool, but I did not have the resources to make this happen. I didn’t have a solid enough relationship with a church so I could take these kinds of photos. I also didn’t want to take self-portraits, so I had to think about the availability of a model. These problems made me feel more frustration at myself, as well as, the structure of the class. I was putting myself into a box and was trying to force myself to create complex pieces for this class when, in reality, the class did not require this.
The assignment description was just to create photos with a clear narrative. In order to do this, you need to have a strong storytelling ability, not a fancy studio setup or models. It pains me to say that it took me so long to learn this lesson. I remember coming into the first in-class work day that I had for this assignment. I had no photos to show my professor, but I was just planning on using this day to brainstorm and come up with photo ideas. After struggling to explain my concept to my professor, she finally pulled me aside and taught me a method to help narrow down my ideas.
She drew two columns up on the board and labelled them “abstract” and “concrete”. She told me to first list abstract ideas that were relevant to my topic. I mentioned purity, hypocrisy, and communion as a few examples of the abstract. She then had me move onto the concrete things. Things you can see, smell, touch, taste, etc. I mentioned things like pews, the Bible, and stained glass as examples. She then told me to connect the abstract to the concrete. After matching up the words in each column, we then started to think about the images I could create along those ideas. I was so happy that I could finally conceptualize my idea, and create things rooted in reality. It brought me back to the very basics and taught me how to find meaning in the smallest things. This lesson has since helped me to create photos that I am very proud of.
Going into this shoot, I had a much clearer idea of what I could accomplish. I took some photos of me running away from a church, a church in my sideview mirror, and showing a small cross I have standing up against my tarot collection. It felt like I was acknowledging how I am leaving my past behind me, and also how it has shaped me into the person I am today.
Below is my final photo.
My other potential finals I have in the gallery below.
Thank you for reading the second part of this series. Make sure to come back and read Part 3!