In my "Mystic" photo series I ventured into a quaint town in Connecticut and took photos of the various buildings, and shops everywhere. My primary focus on the series was capturing the color, and the line and shape of buildings, then I edited the photos to look older like film. The message of this photo series meant to be based around the sentiment of local businesses and the driving characteristics of what gives a building or home a personality or sentiment. My primary inspiration for this series drives from a quote from the author Becky Albertalli: “People really are like house with vast rooms and tiny windows. And maybe it's a good thing, the way we never stop surprising each other,”. The quote alludes to people as houses with tiny windows in the sense that people only let you see the parts of them they wish to show, the same way a tiny window will only show such a tiny portion of a house to it's viewer. Through the exterior of houses and windows, what can we hypothesize about the kind people who occupy them? I hope that when people view my photos, they build a story of each building’s purpose. Who might live in a yellow house? Why are moving boxes placed in the windows?
In my "Autumn" concentration I focused on documenting the beautiful yellow and red hues of leaves as they change in the fall. It's so simple to pass by a leaf every single day without taking the time to notice the unique way raindrops delicately settle on top of the coursing veins of the leaf, or the way the gold of the setting sun can bring an entire forest to life as light fades, causing different shadows to stretch across leaves within moments of each photograph. When I was taking these photos, I was mindful of my depth of field. How can a shallow depth of field define the way a leaf or branch bends? How can both a small and large depth a field be used to accentuate texture? In photo two, I utilized small depth of field to create a unique photo because the striking focus on the single leaf showcases the way it curves up the photograph and curls at the top filling the the remaining space with its outstretching leaves.
In my photo series I focused on the expression of family members as they interact around thanksgiving dinner.