Media Arts Portfolio : Theme Shots – Your chance to do some GREAT Photography! Due Date: June 15

As part of your summative evaluation, you are to produce a portfolio of 5 “theme” images, one from four of the groups below, plus one Abstract shot.

Save them as five JPEG files named after the theme (e.g. Morning.jpg, Portrait.jpg), in a folder named AWT3/Portfolio.

You will also create a Powerpoint document with the photos and separate slides with descriptions. (details below). Save it as Portfolio-your name.ppt in the same folder. E.g. AWT3/Portfolio/Portfolio_Barack_Obama.ppt. Save the jpegs with your name and the theme e.g. Joe_Student_Sport.jpg

As a Visual Arts course, Media Arts is not just about learning the technology and skills of taking good photographs, important though those are. Additionally, it’s about developing your “artist’s eye”, your ability to create an image that conveys feeling and meaning, engaging the viewer.

Digital photography gives you the opportunity to take lots of pictures at little cost, which is great for developing skill and vision. Rather than just shooting random shots, we’d like you to do a series of shots based on themes. You’ll use these to focus your work, thinking of a way to convey the theme in an image.

Given the idea of “freedom” for instance, you’d start by exploring what this concept means to you. Maybe it’s the weekend, when you’re free of school demands. How would you compose an image that conveys the sense of freedom you feel on weekends? Or maybe you think of political freedom, or the freedom from inhibition that a small child feels.

Example

Here’s an example developing the theme of “age”. Age could be interpreted many ways: youth, aging etc. Here I’ve chosen to explore the idea of old age, in a person and a building, and collage the two together. I made the woman’s face and skin dominant by copying it from the background layer, which has the aging roof semi-transparently on top of it, and pasting the face over top of everything.

To me, she appears to be contemplating, maybe her life and the forces that age all people and things. At the same time her face and the deteriorating roof have a dignity and a kind of beauty that come with age.

aging copy

Notes:

The photo is grayscale – sometimes this is more powerful and elemental than colour – use your judgement
A collage was used here, but most of your portfolio can just be single photos.
All photos must be your own, even in a collage. If you need a textured background or whatever, take a photo of it and manipulate it in Photoshop
I think I overdid the blending of human and roof – it likely would have been better to include her hair in the part pasted on top, so that only her clothing is blended. What do you think?

Specifications and Rules

All photos must be shot by you during the last month of this semester – no old favourites. If you shot some great photos in the past few weeks, this is a chance to use some of those photos, but at least 3 of the 4 plus the abstract must be freshly shot specifically for this assignment, meaning shot this month (May-June semester 2 or January semester 1). You can’t use shots you took for other assignments.
Don’t try to do this all in one shoot – adding a shot every day or two makes for more variety.
Photos must have a resolution of at least 1200 pixels in width. Even the lowest-end digital camera can do this, but don’t use your cellphone!
In the Powerpoint, start with a title slide. Then for each photo, have two slides:

a slide with only the large photo on it, followed by…
a slide with a small version of the photo and a writeup on the photo.

The writeup slide, in point form must state:

state the theme,
when and where you took the shot
who or what the subjects are
any exposure information your camera will give you.
how you think your photo develops the theme,
comments – how did it turn out? Could anything have been improved?

If you want, some of the images can be montages or other Photoshop alterations, like the one above.
All should be cropped and enhanced in PhotoShop!
Up to three photos can be grayscale instead of colour, if you think they work better.
No more than one theme from each group
Do not add any timed effects in Powerpoint, so we can go through them without waiting for dissolves, spinning text etc.!
There should only be 5 jpegs plus the Powerpoint in your AWT3/Portfolio folder. If you shot more than 5 themes, you can have more than 5 jpegs, but don’t leave any extra files in the folder – delete them!
This should be your best work – thoughtfully planned beautiful photos, not just random snapshots! Show me your photographic artistry!

Themes & Theme Groups (choose 1 from any 4 groups, plus an abstract) = 5 shots

The links are examples, mostly from my own photos. Some of them interpret the theme literally, while some have more levels, and are more interesting because of it. For instance, the “Balance” image shows my daughter balancing slightly, the balance between what the horse wants and what she wants, and a symmetrical balance of colour across the middle line between the girl and horse.

Try to go beyond the literal or obvious meaning. For example, the Power image shows the power of the motor, but also the power of the threatening sky the boat seems to be fleeing from (and it was!).

Note that these are a much lower resolution than required – yours will fill the screen.