Artist Statement

In this portfolio, there are many assignments that will be found that have been created over the course of the first semester. The projects from the beginning of the school year are more along the lines of learning how to take good photographs using compositional tricks. These tricks are very helpful when trying to arrange a good and successful composition. Towards the end of the first semester, the projects begin to shift from pure photography to using Photoshop to alter either the subject of the photo or the photograph itself.

Over the course of the semester, I have learned various techniques that would help me become a better photographer and user of Photoshop. The compositional tricks are something that is deeply embedded into my mind and now they are things that are constantly remiding me of how to take better photos. The compositional tricks have not only helped me in Digital Photo, but have also helped me in my other art class, Studio Art. The main objectives these tricks help create are: a good composition, a sense of unity, and as well as movement within an artwork. Thus, the tricks not only make themselves known to me in Photo class, but also when I’m drawing up a new project in my other class as well.

Although the compositional tricks are something that really helped me, one of the tricks, however, was something that I had difficulty trying to achieve. The extreme angle “bird’s eye” trick is something that I had trouble attaining because it was something completely new to me. It’s definitely a trick that would help me create a really cool composition. It will also allow me to take a photograph that is creative and refreshing because there normally aren’t many photographs that I have seen taken from such angle.

One of my favorite projects from this class was the Social Issue assignment. We had to imitate the artist Barbara Kruger while conveying our own social issue. I feel like this project is my most successful. It is one of the few projects that I took photos for at home and it is also the only one where I tried something that I normally wouldn’t. In order to create this photograph, I had to use black paint to completely cover the hand and leave some splatters on my face. I had originally intended to have the bathtub filled in with black water, but the photographs didn’t come out as well as I would have liked. Although creating this project was a different experience for me, I feel that this project is my most successful because I created something out of the ordinary.

Now that I look back on my portfolio I feel like I could go back and probably take better pictures to suit the theme of each project, such as the Alien, or some of the compositional tricks, such as leading lines. My skills in Photoshop have definitely improved and they are something that I will continue to build on. Although, I feel like I could have done different things that would have made some of my projects better, I do feel like my portfolio is prety successful.