Mirror Mirror
"A New World"
The series "Mirror Mirror" came about because I was both fascinated and intimidated by Conceptual Photography. I love the genre of conceptual photography and its ability to tell a story with one or many meanings. I have long wanted to know how to create worlds within a photo and am fascinated by the process of editing pictures to create what I see in my imagination. I have never had time to pursue learning how until now. A photographer that inspires me by their beautiful and imaginative work is alexandriaslens on Instagram.
Sky background: pexels-sourav-mishra-5031274
Smoke overlay: pexels-olha-ruskykh-5984623
"Out of Fire"
The process for each picture included taking multiple photos of my subject in the chosen spaces and then another of the empty space with the same framing. Because this was my first foray into blending pictures, I used my learning from first-term classes to get started, but I still had some gaps as we were early on. I went to different photoshop forums to learn the photo layering techniques.
Cloud layer: pexels-andrew-beatson-3742709
"Otherworldly"
Even though the locations of each photo were beautiful, I found that the sky that day was quite bland and grey, so I went looking for dynamic sky backgrounds to help animate the images and create an "otherworldly" effect for each photo. Credit for each background and overlay is listed under each picture.
Sky layers: diego-ph-vTitvl4O2kE-unsplash
Sparkle overlay: zane-lee-IHj0xtWtLKE-unsplash
"Black and White"
This photo series fits the conceptual photography genre because they convey an idea or theme: Introspect. Each picture represents another facet of this woman's inner being. She is daring to enter, explore and examine. Not all of us are so brave. The creation of these pictures was time consuming and required many tiny decisions as each addition or subtraction accentuated the concept behind the series. The photos were created to look beautiful, but the elements and process of creating the photos add to the meaning.
This final photograph, "Black and White" is my favourite of the four. I love the contrast and depth that the black and white creates, juxtaposed with the presumably bright and colourful world the woman is coming from.
We can glance into a mirror and see an outside image, a façade perhaps, but if we enter the mirror and dig deeper the potential is infinite. It may seem scary. You may be challenged. Will you venture into the mirror? You may be amazed by the depth and richness you find.
Cloud background: daoudi-aissa-Pe1Ol9oLc4o-unsplash
