Sunday, February 10, 2013
Fear
When I
first started brainstorming ideas for this project all I could think about
were the cliché's that are associated with fear, things like spiders, needles,
knives, and heights. Slowly, I began to dig deeper into myself and confronted the
things that truly scare me, things such as hearing people scream,
fighting, failure, self doubt, and being pushed out of my comfort zone.
-A
At one
point when I was brainstorming I realized how tense my body had become. Even
though I was writing my thoughts down on paper and in the privacy of my
own home, the very act of thinking about the things that I fear made
me tense and uncomfortable.
As I was
writing I also noticed these top recurring themes:
Fear of
pain
Fear of
being trapped/strapped down
Fear of
letting go of something or someone
My
concept:
My
concept for this project is freedom and confinement, and the fear that both
emotions represent.
A person
can be fearful of the responsibility that freedom represents. For example, no
longer living with your parents, the idea of no longer being dependent of your
parents can be very freeing, but at the same time freedom comes with a lot of
responsibility, how you choose to live your life and the battle between right
and wrong.
A person
can also be fearful of confinement, perhaps the idea of being tied down and
living your life they way others think is best, while others might see
confinement as a good thing, believing that it can bring a sense of comfort and
security.
Inspiration:
My
inspiration for this project came from my reaction to writing down my
fears. One moment I was calm and the next I was angry, tense, and
uncomfortable, just by remembering all of my insecurities.
Compositional approach:
I chose
to use hands as my models because they were the first thing on my body that
gave away how uncomfortable confessing my fears was for me. Most people might
not consider hands to be an expressive part of the body, but when thinking
about fear and your physical reaction to it, your hands are your means
of protection, and the first things you use when you need to defend yourself.
I decided to use a leather belt
because it’s an object that can be used to express both emotions. The belt can
look menacing if tied around person wrists, however if left loose it can
represent a form of freedom and control.
I chose to use a black background
for the images because I associated fear with something dark; a black
background felt appropriate to set the mood.
I used two clamp lamps, one up
above and slightly in front of the hands, and the other behind the hands. Both
were diffused with a piece of white paper.
I chose to make the images simple
and direct. Focusing more on the symbolic representation of the belt
intertwined in the hands of the person.
Emotional response:
Emotionally I was uncomfortable
thinking about my fears, which made it difficult for me to find a way to
express them in an image. When I was shooting I felt dark and quiet inside, not
particularity happy or sad, but tentative.
Audience emotional response:
I want my audience to feel
uncomfortable and maybe a little bit afraid.
As a kid a belt could be a used for
punishment; inflicting pain. I associate that pain with the state of
confinement or of being trapped in a place where you don’t want to be and where
you are struggling to get out. I chose for the two images to be different, one “the
dark side”, the other an image representing freedom and control. In this image
I would want people to feel relived and unafraid.
Fear- Thumbnails
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| Stick figures! It's as good as it going to get. |
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| As bad as I am at drawing, putting my ideas down on paper turned out to be very helpful and saved a lot of time. |
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