Studying New Media
Though I don’t consider myself to be very creative, I love the feeling I get when I’m crating something. It could be anything, really. I have dabbled in sketching and collaging and audio remixing, but my favorite medium has always been photography. Whether the picture was taken with a disposable camera (throw-back to when waiting an 1 hour to get a roll pictures back was common place), a point-and-shoot digital camera (revolutionary), or with the new-aged instant print cameras (can’t say “Polaroid camera/picture” anymore; Polaroid gave up on a field they pioneered), I think every form of photography has its charm. Moreover, I think every method of capture says a lot about the time it was developed in.
Just last week, I found a disposable camera while helping my
boyfriend clean out his room. It has 15 pictures left on the roll. First of all,
can you imagine being limited to just 15 pictures again? Secondly, can you
imagine having to wait to see if the picture came out well? Naturally, I felt a
hurricane of nostalgia brewing, and immediately stated clicking away. A bad
selfie, a worse candid of my boyfriend, probably a very of-centered or
out-of-focus shot of us together. Not being able to instantly validate the
worth of the photos felt kind of reckless (which I can’t even believe I’m
saying) and—more so—it felt carefree. It felt effortless and fun and I imagined
myself years from now looking at these pictures again and being so happy I took
them. Even if they’re technically terrible, or if I ever found somewhere to get
them developed. Maybe I wouldn’t remember the event at all, but there would
still be proof that it happened, regardless of my faulty human memory and the now
outdated medium.
So in regards to my “final project,” I choose photography because
pictures tend to make me feel something, generally something just beyond the
reach of words. And not just in the “a picture’s worth a thousand words” way.
(Something I never bought, by the way). I think what matters more are the thoughts
and images and emotions inside ourselves that they evoke. And the connections
we make between the pictures we see and messages we infer the photographer is
conveying to us.
In an attempt to capture this feeling and send it back out into the world, I experimented with two types of photography, two editing platforms and one social platform. I worked with one type of photography (digital), experimented with both two types of editing software, and one social networking site.
Initially, I wanted to learn a photo-editing software. It seemed like the perfect "new media" to study. So I messed around with Picassa, which has very basic (although useful) editing tools. A lot of them reminded me of the filters on Instagram, but more controllable. And easier to differentiate between. But it seemed a little too basic to base my final project off of, so I went from one extreme to another, and downloaded a free trial of Adobe Photoshop. (I will not upload that video, because it's just 20 minutes of me saying "wtf" over and over. I could not make heads or tails of anything.) That portion of the project was embarrassingly short lived, and I realized this wasn't going to be substantial enough on its own. I had to do more than just learn to edit an image. There had to be a bigger end-goal.
The next stage of my project was the "Tumblr Culture" replication.Many of the pictures I see on a daily basis evoke a sort of pale/ faded/ vintage feel when I looked at them (which I love), and this is what I wanted to capture in my own photography (mine are shown on the right):
My goal was to recreate these images and share them with the class. However, Dr. Zamora encouraged me to take a more social route, which I was extremely hesitant about. My main source of social networking, as I have mentioned throughout the semester, is Tumblr, which is primarily an anonymous blogging site.By
“anonymous,” I mean that your account will not suggest people you know; you
cannot use Facebook to log in. The username you create becomes your blog’s URL
and that is only way people can find you. Therefore, it makes it nearly
impossible to find someone if you don’t know their username, because their username could be anything. For me, this is
the major draw to Tumblr. It allows a greater level of expression and honestly,
while still remaining as private as a social media site can be, since nobody I
follow knows me personally.
In regards to "unexpected outcomes," I was most surprised by the lack of activity in the Phonar tag. Furthermore, I was surprised by how disappointing I found this. Also, I feel that, although my pictures did not reach excessive recognition, I learned a bit about my own style and the art of photo manipulation. I did not realize how visually similar my images were, compared to the images I was modeling them after. Though there are still striking stylistic differences, I feel that I successfully captured the essence or foundation of the image format. I think that this will not only help me in future pursuits, but will also influence the pictures I take in the time to come. I also received a few compliments from friends regarding my posts on Instagram, which was very surprising to me. It showed me that what I see isn't what others see. My fear of being a "creative failure" did not translate to my friends, and instead they saw a creative "success."
I forgot how fun it is to find (hunt) that "perfect shot" and get the editing just right. Though I was stressed in the moment of photographing, when I look back at this brief compilation, I realize how valuable my experiences were and are, and how documenting those experiences matter; no matter how small the moment is or how stupid it may seem to take a picture, it definitely matters in ways we can't always foresee.
Mostly, I think this project not only reinforced my love of photography, but revitalized it too.
When
Dr. Zamora suggested I look into the Phonar Nation sessions, I was hesitant (at the
very least) because I am generally uncomfortable with the kind of direct
attention posting on Instagram generates. It is simply a matter of fear: fear
of putting myself out there (creatively) and not having that effort be
validated enough. There are a lot of jokes regarding Instagram, but people
really take that stuff seriously, and will delete posts that don’t receive enough
attention:
I know it's a joke, but someone actually took time out of their day to write this article. So for me, the Instagram thing was a challenge. I was afraid of not being “good” or “creative” enough, but I
posted my pictures anyway. I was excited about different sessions that were available and looked
forward to seeing the works of others. I especially liked the examples provided
by the Phonar staff.
Unfortunately, I found that the Phonar hashtags were not as
active as I thought they would be. In the “most recent” section of the hashtag,
five out of the first six belonged to me. What’s really upsetting is the fact
that one of my pictures was posted on March 30—almost 5 weeks ago. And it is
still in the top 6 most recent images of the hashtag. Furthermore, all the
likes I got on that image (a whopping 7) were from people who already follow
me, not by anyone outside my own personal network. Therefore, I am sad to say
that the Phonar challenge did not connect me to anyone new. Nor did it further
my goal.
These are the images I posted:
And here is a screen shot of the "Most Recent" tag:
You can see that only one image does not belong to me (^ that picture directly above). The picture in the bottom right corner is the one I posted on March 30. The most popular image in this tag has 123 likes, which is still relatively low, considering there are roughly 300 million people using Instagram. There are only 306 results in the tag overall.
In regards to "unexpected outcomes," I was most surprised by the lack of activity in the Phonar tag. Furthermore, I was surprised by how disappointing I found this. Also, I feel that, although my pictures did not reach excessive recognition, I learned a bit about my own style and the art of photo manipulation. I did not realize how visually similar my images were, compared to the images I was modeling them after. Though there are still striking stylistic differences, I feel that I successfully captured the essence or foundation of the image format. I think that this will not only help me in future pursuits, but will also influence the pictures I take in the time to come. I also received a few compliments from friends regarding my posts on Instagram, which was very surprising to me. It showed me that what I see isn't what others see. My fear of being a "creative failure" did not translate to my friends, and instead they saw a creative "success."
I forgot how fun it is to find (hunt) that "perfect shot" and get the editing just right. Though I was stressed in the moment of photographing, when I look back at this brief compilation, I realize how valuable my experiences were and are, and how documenting those experiences matter; no matter how small the moment is or how stupid it may seem to take a picture, it definitely matters in ways we can't always foresee.
Mostly, I think this project not only reinforced my love of photography, but revitalized it too.
