senior ex cultural murals

For my senior exhibition i chose to do cultural street art. My inspiration was the photographer Estevan Oriol and i chose to make my photos similar to his ideas. His photos were taken outdoor which was were all of mine were taken. Like his photos i also chose to make mine both black and white and in color. Though it was all just street art my portfolio is based on culture.

Above is my original senior exhibition shot which i would want to include in my portfolio because it was one of my strongest pictures. I kept this picture because it has a lot of meaning behind it which i tried to also do with my other photos in my portfolio.

In my first photo above I had taken this photo on a building. The objects in this photo are the mural which if your able to look closely a sort of cottage in the background and a river with three slaves. I felt this photo did a very good job at expressing the culture i was aiming for. I chose to keep this photo in color because it gives a better mood. I also liked that this photo reflected African American history. The trees and the cottage or house in the background give different shapes to the photo and i left the window at the bottom because it sort of blended in with the picture because of the reflection of trees. The bottom part if you look closely shows a linear pattern which was intentional to leave in my photo.

My third photo was taken at Chicano park and the mural was on a wall. The objects in this photo are the mural which consists of Aztec men a skeleton chains and cactus which kind of reflects the Mexican history. Outside of the mural is the grass and the cactus on the side of the picture i chose to keep this part because it blends in with the picture. This photo has different themes which was part of the reason i took it. It was taken with a point and shoot camera so i had to work with it a lot in photoshop. I kept this photo in color because it had many different colors that you could find on a color wheel which made the photo look abstract and creative.

My next photo was also taken outdoors but downtown outside of a tattoo place. Part of my portfolio reflects street art and i feel that graffiti can be an art. The black and white photos i have had to be printed because i took them with a different camera. I feel that my black and white photos come out very succesful when it comes to contrast the lighting with this and my original photo came out very well. This photo focuses mainly on graffiti but also has objects.
I felt this photo was one of the most meaningful of all my pictures because it is kind of the story of life. There are many objects in this photo. The photo includes a pland a fetus and two people. The background has two other images but the one closest is the most appealing. I also chose to keep the trees in the distance because it was taken in chicano park. This photo i worked most with photoshop where i was able to remove cars as well as stray parts of the trees. I was also able to brighten the image then use the burning tool so parts of the image did not disappear.

Environmental Photo

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For my Environmental photo I chose to use Nery videotaping since her major at scpa is video production. The objects in the picture are Nery herself, the video camera, and the background was originally the wall with bushes outdoors but with photoshop i was able to remove the bushes and put the focus more on nery and her required environment. I put this picture in blank and white because the lighting appeared stronger to nery in black and white. I also chose to take the picture close up and further to the left because the picture would not be as strong centered. The tone of this photo is based on concentration and how its required with nerys environment. Though this photo is a bit simple i felt its right to the point rather than showing what Nery is actually filming since the photo is supposed to be based on her.

Yellow Boat Photo

reflection: For my yellow boat photo the objects in the picture are viviana and the trees and hill in the background. I chose to use a dirty glass to put in front of viviana so that the picture would have an overall sad somewhat shriveled or disappearing mood. Aids depending on the person can be a depressing feeling. This photo was taken outdoors and i had a bit of a hard time using the reflector without seeing me in the photo. The colors are sort of fall colors because of the trees and the hill and viviana's choice of wardrobe helped give her more of the focus. Her red headband what viewers may not recognize is suppose to indicate the color of aids itself.

extra credit in class shot

senior exhibition test shot

Reflection: For my senior exhibition test shot of graffiti there are many objects shown in the picture. If you look closely you will see a variety of things expressed in this image including a skull, a mexican or aztec man, a fetus, a deer, bubbles with objects inside of them and letters. This picture is very abstract. The shapes in the picture are shown through the objects themselves the skull is very circular as well as the fetus image and the lettering also portray the shapes. The image was intentionally put well in focus to get a good image on how specific each object idealizes. I feel the image is both dark and light in different ways and since it is in black and white it gives a feeling of different shades of gray. This image was taken outdoors on a building so other people can see that the setting in which this photo was taken portrays the lives of those who live there. I feel that i was somewhat successful with this photo i feel one of my other pictures could have given a better message but i like that this gives different feelings to those who see it. I felt a bit rushed when choosing my final picture since it was not taken with a digital camera and i had to spend a lot of time developing.

alter ego

Reflection: For my alter ego photo i wasn't sure what i wanted to do. The objects in this photo that make the photo my alter ego are the fake knife, heels, and the tights. The picture is taken somewhat far away so that i could be able to paste one photo onto another. The knife gives the feel for the element of design of a line. The photos are a bit blurry which was accidental but i made an effort to adjust it in photoshop. The pictures of myself are a bit dark and the background appears very bright. This photo was taken indoors. I tried to make myself look like the same person but a different personality. I feel with this photo i could have done a lot better but it took me a while to find the idea that i wanted. I did not have very much time to take photos either since the backgrounds had to match. Originally i wanted footsteps walking towards each other behind me making it seem as though i was approaching my alter ego. I feel as though i focused too much on making my picture work rather than just letting it flow together. And i think the audience would have understood my alter ego better if it was not in black in white,but if i would have done it in color it would have looked really fake.

Maya Angelou Quote

Nature has no mercy at all. Nature says, "I'm going to snow. If you have on a bikini and no snowshoes, that's tough. I am going to snow anyway."