Revised Version
Revision 3 (latest)
What changed: The image I wanted in the thumbnail
Revision 2
What changed: For some reason, when revising, the system seems to be placing the revised image in a different location, and perhaps deleting an original. I am revising again to put the original #3 back in.
Revision 1
What changed: I changed the first image as the original #1 was not getting much attention. I think I would change some additional images as well when I collect a few more.
Added after receiving feedback from the community.
Original Version
Project Overview
Image Sequence
Image 1
#1
Image 2
#2
Image 3
This is a new #3
#3
Image 4
#4
Image 5
#5
Image 6
#6
Image 7
#7
Image 8
#8
Image 9
#9
Project Description
Thresholds explores the experience of crossing over boundaries or barriers, recognizing distinct colors/spaces separated by a barrier, a line or lines of some sort. Conceptually, I would like these spaces and colors to represent emotional states or feelings (though they might differ from person to person).
This project is very abstract, and most of these are composed from non-nature elements, drawing largely from areas around my home, including garden spaces, but frequently literal doorways and openings to other rooms inside or outside. All of the images are 8x10, all of them have a division, some have more than one dividing line.
Self-Critique
What I Think Is Working
I think the vertical orientation and portrait inspired aspect ratio is working. It doesn’t dictate where the viewers’ eyes first land or where they go afterwards. I want that to be left to the viewer. A landscape format might encourage the left to right western cognitive bias. The other benefit of vertical is that it also more closely represents the human form and literal doorways. I tried the 4x6 but felt it was too vertical, not concise enough.
What Needs Improvement
I’m not sure about order, and I’m not sure about the green images at all. They are the more organic ones, but also less culturally connected to specific feelings or emotions–just organic, time, growth, so that is relevant.
–I’m thinking about swapping 6 and 7, letting the more complicated image with more orange fall later in the sequence.
–I think I need two or three more images, and I don’t have them yet. Maybe by Thursday I’ll have alternates
Creative Direction
I want this project to feel like an exploration of different emotions and colors, expressing emotional time-spaces through color, but also suggesting how close we are, at any moment, to a different kind of place emotionally, spiritually, or physically.
I want to be clear about this: I don’t think that others need to feel my specific context, and I want the images to suggest beginnings, movement through time and feeling, and hopefully viewers will project their own journeys onto this series.
Skip this if you want to give it an unbiased reaction: The project comes out of my own journey in my domestic space: I am continually moving from grieving to laughing, from being paralyzed with sadness to embracing joy, from thinking about death and loss to embracing life and the future.
I want to avoid overly binary representations of these states in the images, so I am trying to allow them to be complicated, not too specific, and sometimes ambiguous as to the mood itself. There is love in grief and warmth in darkness, so I’m trying to compose those feelings in these images.
Feedback Requested
- I’m trying to make sure there is a trend in the viewing of the images of seeing the colors, associating them with emotion, and feeling the shifts both within and between the frames.
- I want to know where these images take others–if it takes them anywhere–and if they can apply it to their lives somehow. No need to overshare on the details, but feel free or send me a direct message.
- I want to know if any images really don’t work for this, or if any of the colors don’t have a symbolic connection to emotion or feelings or states of being for you.
- Should any of these be flipped? Cropped?
Project Intent
Gallery on your website
Additional Details: I’m mostly interested in the conceptual feedback, but I think some technical suggestions might hone that, so I’m open to both.
Right now, I just plan to put this in my Adobe Gallery. I will probably print some as a calendar for family this winter, but most of them prefer more realism in my photos. So it’s pretty much just fir me and abstract enthusiasts.