Photography has never really been my "thing". It intimidates me and when I'm the subject it makes me really uncomfortable. So, I was not sure how this assignment was going to go, but either way it was going to happen. I've never been a serious photographer but I had fun doing this, and I'm pretty happy with how they turned out!
In my last blog post I talked about the Ideation process, and I'll repost my inspiration boards that I used for me and my other person:
Me: https://www.pinterest.com/ashleigh_salaza/like-a-poem-me/
Julia (my person): https://www.pinterest.com/ashleigh_salaza/julia/
It was not so difficult capturing Julia because she is so herself pretty much all the time. We took some photos on campus, the bus, target, and her house. It was pretty much Julia, me, and my friend hanging out and me taking a ton of photos when I could. I wanted a lot of candids (2 out of 3 ended up being ones), and the vast majority of the pictures were just that.
I ended up taking a little over 200 photos which can be seen here:
Julia Contact Sheet (pdf)
It was really hard to choose only tree, they were literally ALL good. Even the not really good ones, and a lot of them so easily meme-able.
The Final Three (unedited):
The Final Three (edited):
"If I were to describe Julia I'd say she's intense, detail-oriented, happy, and good natured"
Photo One: This is the only one of the three chosen that is really posed. I wanted an outdoor shot and I wanted it to be more on the serious side. When I talked to Jane, Julia's gf, she gave me the quote above. I needed to find a way to capture that intensity because it doesn't matter if you've known Julia for years like I have or just met her, you can feel that intensity. The stare directly into the camera with darker background to contrast I felt was a good way to do that.
Photo Two: This was literally her playing around with fairy lights. I was actually aiming for a posed shot, and as I was figuring out how I wanted to shoot I got this one which was unintentional and ended up being one of my favorites. When I was talking with her about the photos she said she wanted rainbows cus "I'm Gay" so we did that with fairy lights cus #aesthetic.
Photo Three: This was taken right before me and Megan left to go home. It was totally by accident and I love it so much. Julia is v. extroverted (she says she isn't but like she is). Julia is a wild bean, but she is also incredibly kind and caring. She's always willing to help and wanting to make others happy. When we were talking about what drives us she talked about doing things because other people said she couldn't, but it's also other people. She cares deeply about others, and the world could use more people like that.
Julia's honorable mentions because I can't kill all my babies:
I hate being in front of a camera so it actually started with me kind of hesitant to be in any of them. I took pictures of my neighborhood thinking this could step in for me and I guess they could have, but it didn't feel right. That and I attempted to take a lot of these by myself which was really hard sometimes with a tripod. Some were under street lights, in my basement which isn't finished yet so it's empty, a bookstore, public transportation, and my room.
All my photos taken can be viewed here:
My Final Three (unedited):
My Final Three (edited):
Photo one: This was me in my basement. I really like the lighting and because it's getting finished there is literally only this rug down there. I liked the openness of it, but also the loneliness of it. I'm a commuter student, introverted, struggle a lot with social anxiety, and just in general am a very closed off person. All of that leads me to isolate myself a lot of the time. It's a part of myself that's very evident but also one of my major faults. I think this photo does a good job at capturing that.
Photo two: Eyeliner is my version of Steve Jobs and his black turtleneck. I've been wearing it since my sophomore year of high school. It's become a part of my look, and I was playing around with angles and positioning and captured this. It's glittery too which I really love. True to what I said in my Ideation post, I'm not looking directly at the camera nor am I in any of these shots. This is another thing that kind of goes with idea I talked about for photo one.
Photo three: Unlike the others, this is the first one where my whole face is for the most part visible and clear. It's also taken in one of my favorite places in the entire world: a bookstore. I did get a person help me take these and it hurt me to cut any of them because I adored all the bookstore pictures. I rarely like pictures of myself, but you can tell I'm immediately more comfortable being surrounded by something I love. I've been a pretty avid reader my whole life, I currently work at a bookstore, these pictures just wouldn't be complete without books.
(side note: V.E. Schwab, the author of the book I'm holding, is amazing and I highly recommend all of her books.)
My honorable mentions:
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