Individual / Universal Photography
Title: Time to Go Home
Size: 45.72cm x 55.88cm Medium: Photography Completion: March 2024 Exhibition TextMy photograph “Time to Go Home” is about my relationship with my family, shown by the family photo, and my close friends, represented by the friendship bracelets. This piece was inspired by the anonymous artist Banksy, who makes art about our society’s controversial political and social problems. I took inspiration from two of Banksy’s works, and how he displayed them in outdoor environments where people wouldn’t associate artwork to be displayed.
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Inspiration
Banksy is an anonymous contemporary graffiti artist based in England who is assumed to have been born and raised there. He started graffiti art in the early 1990s; however, his art wasn't just outside but also displayed inside. 1998 Banksy's first art exhibition was displayed inside a flat; however, rather than showing graffiti, the artwork was more of his acrylic and canvas. Aside from that exhibition, he was still most known and drawn to Grafiti, as he was originally a freehanded Grafiti artist in the '90s. However, when the 2000s came around, he switched to using stencils for his works, which were more time-efficient. A consistent theme in Banksys' artwork is politics and other social and cultural topics. As shown above, the two works I took inspiration from were "Valentine's Day Mascara" and "Mobile Lovers." Both of these works are not based on politics but rather on the status of society and the reality of it. Mobile Lovers was created in 2014 and is based on how society is deeply attached to their phones. Even when embracing someone they love, their attention is on their phone rather than their partner. Valentine's Day Mascara was created in 2023, depicting domestic violence in relationships against women. The artwork is of an injured woman pushing a man under a real refrigerator, possibly as a defense.
When I first looked into Banksy's work and its different meanings, I was drawn to his work on society and culture. More specifically, his works revolve around relationships. While Valentine's Day Mascara and Mobile Lovers have different meanings, a common theme is relationships between two people, which is a clear connection to my theme of relationships. I found some characteristics of his artwork interesting and want to include them in my final photograph. First, most of his work is done outside, while the choice is mostly because of publicity and attention from society; I find the way he used the environment and displayed interesting. For instance, in Valentine's Day Mascara, he graffitied the subjects and used a found object already there—the refrigerator. I thought it was engaging how he used a broken refrigerator as part of his work. Thinking about this, I felt that it connected well to my prompt for my photograph to use a specific environment and the things in it. I also liked the color palette and overall mood Banksy's works produced. In both the artworks I took inspiration from, Banksy picked environments with a neutral background that would better emphasize the meaning of his work. I also found his color palate Banksy used to be interesting; while he often kept it just black with a pop of color, the simplicity of it made the message and overall picture stand out more. I felt the idea of having a pop of color in the photo would be a good way to emphasize something important. Ultimately, I found inspiration from the underlying theme of these two artworks created by Banksy and the use of found objects and color palettes.
When I first looked into Banksy's work and its different meanings, I was drawn to his work on society and culture. More specifically, his works revolve around relationships. While Valentine's Day Mascara and Mobile Lovers have different meanings, a common theme is relationships between two people, which is a clear connection to my theme of relationships. I found some characteristics of his artwork interesting and want to include them in my final photograph. First, most of his work is done outside, while the choice is mostly because of publicity and attention from society; I find the way he used the environment and displayed interesting. For instance, in Valentine's Day Mascara, he graffitied the subjects and used a found object already there—the refrigerator. I thought it was engaging how he used a broken refrigerator as part of his work. Thinking about this, I felt that it connected well to my prompt for my photograph to use a specific environment and the things in it. I also liked the color palette and overall mood Banksy's works produced. In both the artworks I took inspiration from, Banksy picked environments with a neutral background that would better emphasize the meaning of his work. I also found his color palate Banksy used to be interesting; while he often kept it just black with a pop of color, the simplicity of it made the message and overall picture stand out more. I felt the idea of having a pop of color in the photo would be a good way to emphasize something important. Ultimately, I found inspiration from the underlying theme of these two artworks created by Banksy and the use of found objects and color palettes.
Planning
The first planning sketch I did was based on my family relationship. The location of this sketch is my back alley, which has dumpsters and trash around. The dumpster is significant to what the photo would look like. The idea is that the connotation of the dumpsters and the trash being in the context of the family photo (the object leaned against the dumpster) would bring out a certain idea of my family relationship. I was trying to focus on juxtaposition with this sketch. While thinking of ideas, I would always compare them to a typical family photo on a wall. But now the family photo is being leaned against a dumpster. I wanted the setting of the photo to be a little gloomy, almost giving off a sad mood. In the far background there would be other buildings however, I knew those wouldn't matter as much because the focus from the camera would be on the family photo and the dumpsters.
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This sketch is inspired by my relationship with a bracelet, and how it holds significant value to me. I wanted to portray a setting where this bracelet would be near other jewelry and or objects that have a high value. This sketch takes place in my room on top of my dresser. On the top left corner of the dresser is a jewelry stand that displays some of my "fancier" and "higher value" looking jewelry pieces. The goal was to have those other jewelry pieces in the background, and the bracelet be in the foreground to emphasize that it's the subject of the photo. I left the rest of the sketch blank, as I wasn't sure where to branch more ideas from. |
This sketch is a combination of my relationship with an object and my family. The idea of this sketch is to convey the idea of something that was once forgotten but after time has come back into life. I wanted this to be an evolution series with the image starting from the left having the foreground be blurry, but the background more clear. And as the evolution of the picture as a whole progresses right, both the foreground and background would be crystal clear. To re-emphasize that something that was once significant to me that was forgotten, has now come back into a clear perspective. |
Process
Before I started taking the photos to determine my final photo, I first went into me back alley and took some photos of what the environment looked like. Doing this helped me get a better idea of the different ways I could take my photo. Ultimately, I figured I had a lot of open concrete space, with three dumpsters, one could not be moved, but the bright red and blue dumpsters could. Knowing this it gave me a few more options to take pictures at.
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Next I needed to gather, and make the objects I wanted in my final photograph. The first object I wanted was the framed family photograph, I didn't have one framed so I had to print out the photo and frame it myself. For the frame I wanted a basic colored frame, so it wouldn't distract from the actual photo it'll hold. Figure 1 was the frame I found, next I need to put my photograph in the frame. At first I found this to be difficult because this wasn't a normal photo frame, this was a frame holding a piece of art. But then I realized I could use the art work as a stable board to hold up my photo in the frame. So I popped the board out of the frame, figure 1.2. Then I took my photo and laid it flat on the board, and slowly slipped it back into place with the frame, and then I had my completed family photo object, (figure 1.3). My last object I wanted was my two friendship bracelets, I didn't have to do any reconstructing of them, because I wanted them as is, figure 1.4. |
Next I started taking pictures with my objects, my first round of pictures I took without the bracelets, I did this to see if I liked how the photographs turned out and possibly if the overall meaning of the photo would change. I took these photos at different angles to start to get an idea of what angle is best. I realized I liked the closer angle of figure 2, however I didn't like the placement of the frame. Similarly, I didn't like the placement in figure 2.1, but I also didn't like how the space was being taken up.
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For the next round of photos, I decided to incorporate my friendship bracelets, but also fix the placement of the family photo. I wanted to adjust the placement of the family photo because while I did feel it fit the unity of the photograph, I felt I wanted to adjust the space being used on the dumpster. To fix the placement of the family photo I used command strips(figure 3) to attach it to the side of the dumpster (figure 3.2). I then took another round off photos with the family photo attached to the side of the dumpster, and I also included the two friendship bracelets attached to the other dumpster using a command hook. Figure 3.3 is one of the photos. |
After taking my final round of photos I was left with the photo I thought looked the best. I liked this photo the best (figure 4) of them all because I liked how when looking at the hand reaching for the bracelet that position will move the viewers eye to the red dumpster with the hanging family photo. Adding this level of depth.
Next I opened Photopea and titled my project, then changed the pixels to inches, and made the dimensions 18 inches x 22 inches, and a DPI of 250.(figure 4) Then I clicked the file bar, and picked open and place, to open my image file. (figure 4.1) Then my photograph showed up and I cropped it to the right dimensions. Lastly, I saved it as a JPG and it was done. (Figure 4.3) |
Experimentation
The first thing I experimented with was getting to know my environment I wanted to take my photograph in, and the perspective at which I would take the photograph. (figures 5, 5.1, 5.2,). After taking these photos I went with the area of figure 5, because I liked the contrast of the colors of the dumpsters, the bright red, with the dark blue. I also could physically move the blue dumpster if needed.
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Next I played around with the placement of my objects, which included a framed family photo, and a trash bag. My initial idea was to have both of those objects propped up against the red dumpster in figure 6, but I felt it was too simple, and I felt the meaning I was trying to get at was too obvious. Visually seeing this gave me the final reason to add in my friendship bracelets to slightly change the meaning of the photograph, to not only apply to my blood family but friends of which I consider family.
I knew I wanted to add the friendship bracelets on the blue dumpster, so the colors of the different dumpsters would evoke a different emotion based on the objects displayed on them. Blue to evoke calm and stability, and red to evoke passion and urgency. |
Considering how I wasn't satisfied with the family photo just being propped up against the red dumpster, I considered the idea of hanging it on the dumpster. I thought of this idea, because when people think of nice family photos they think of them being hung on a clean decorated wall safely inside a house, and I thought the juxtaposition of hanging the family photo on the dumpster would really get the viewer to question why is it hung on the side of the dumpster.
To hang it I took poster command strips, however when I tired sticking it to the red dumpster it wouldn't stay up, I tried whipping the dumpster but it wasn't working. I decided to try a stronger type of adhesive, that wouldn't damage the dumpster. So I found more command strips but not the poster type which I learned are mean for delicate paper, and I used the normal Velcro command strips. I then peeled and placed them on the back of the frame (figure 7) to then display it on the red dumpster (figure 7.1). |
Another problem I was having was with the placement of my friendship bracelets. At first I had them slightly hanging out of a hole in the blue dumpster, but when I would reach for them in the photo it was difficult to place my hand on them without letting them fall. I also felt that the bracelets were kind of lost in the dumpster, and I didn't want that to convey the wrong meaning then what my intentions were. I decided to use a hook (Figure 8) that would adhere to the dumpster, and I slipped my bracelets in it. However when I was taking photos I found that having the bracelets placed on the side of the dumpster (figure 8.2) made it hard to see them from the perspective I was wanting to take the photo at. I decided to move the hook to the back side (figure 8.2) of the same area of the blue dumpster and I found it to be much more visible in the photos (figure 8.3) |
Critique
My art work is similarly planned like Banksy's artwork, planning to have the artworks displayed outside. My photograph is similar to Banksy's Valentines Day Mascara we both used found objects that was already in the environment we chose to display outwork, and worked those objects into the meaning of our pieces. In Valentines Day Mascara Banksy used a old fridge that was abandoned there, and used it to depict the idea of domestic violence. While in my work, I used the dumpster to add the conceptual idea of "trash" in comparison to my family and friends. Additionally in both of Banky's work and mine we used light and color to emphasize a certain aspect of the artwork. In Valentines Day Mascara Banksy uses color to draw attention to the women to distract from what happened with her partner, and in his Mobile Lovers piece he used light from the phones onto these peoples faces to make the awareness to the viewer of where these subjects true attention is at. In my artwork I made sure to keep my hand lighter to draw attention to the bracelets I was holding, so it would contrast the dark blue dumpster, and I also specifically wanted to use the bright red dumpster because it's high color saturation would draw attention to the family photo on the dumpster. Moreover, the use of movement is present in both my artwork and Valentines Day Mascara. In Valentines Day Mascara movement is shown once the viewer is looking at the women subject, and their eyes it guided towards her hand then led to looking the direction the arms are pointed (right) at her partners feet hanging in the air. While my piece has movement starting at the hand holding the bracelets as it is slightly angled towards the red dumpster and the photo. One contrasting aspect between my photograph and Banksy's work is the subject, in both Banksy's work its subjects are graffiti people. While in my work the subjects are my hand, friendship bracelets, and the family photo. While these pieces have different subjects, the relationship among the subjects are similar. The subjects of my hand and the family photo the relationship are strained and distant, and in a similar manner, Banksy's subject relationships are strained, distant, and toxic. Ultimately, while there isn't the most visual connection among the subjects, and environment, there is connection among the purpose of the creation of the work and intention for certain design choices.
Reflection
During this process, I felt I didn’t use many skills I have learned, aside from using a Photoshop program to crop my image, adjust the contrast, and some color in the photo. I thought this process was the start of learning and understanding the importance and process of photography, a medium I have never worked with before. This project helped me understand the deeper meaning and process behind photography, as before, I often overlooked photography, even as an artist. This project put into perspective how much thought process goes into taking a single photograph. I learned how important it is to set up the environment in which the photo will be taken properly because even if one object in the area is off, it could throw off the whole meaning and composition of the final photograph. I also learned that often, when the original photograph is taken, that isn’t what the final photo will look like. I used to think that once a photographer took a photograph, that was how it looked with the amazing lighting. But then I learned that photographers use Photoshop to get nicer-looking pictures, which I also learned can add to the unity of a photograph. In my photograph when I took the photo, while I liked the quality of it, I didn’t like how bright certain parts were. So, I edited the contrast and the coloration of certain parts of the picture; doing this made it look a lot better, and I felt it brought another level of emotion to my photograph.
Overall, my inspiration theme doesn’t necessarily connect with mine, but with two of his pieces, I found a sub-theme of relationships between people. I took advantage of that and further took inspiration from Banksy’s use of the outdoors and occasional use of found objects to be part of his pieces.
My biggest challenge was the placement of my objects. At first, I wasn’t sure how to display the family photo, and when I changed my mind, I tried hanging it up, and it didn’t work. So, I tried again with another adhesive, and it worked. I also had trouble figuring out how to place my bracelets because they were so small that if I positioned them a certain way, they wouldn’t be seen. Aside from my challenges, I felt my greatest success was the overall composition and unity of my photograph; I was pleased with the visual aesthetic of it. I hope that others view my work, they will question the placement of these objects, and think about the significance of the placement is.
Overall, my inspiration theme doesn’t necessarily connect with mine, but with two of his pieces, I found a sub-theme of relationships between people. I took advantage of that and further took inspiration from Banksy’s use of the outdoors and occasional use of found objects to be part of his pieces.
My biggest challenge was the placement of my objects. At first, I wasn’t sure how to display the family photo, and when I changed my mind, I tried hanging it up, and it didn’t work. So, I tried again with another adhesive, and it worked. I also had trouble figuring out how to place my bracelets because they were so small that if I positioned them a certain way, they wouldn’t be seen. Aside from my challenges, I felt my greatest success was the overall composition and unity of my photograph; I was pleased with the visual aesthetic of it. I hope that others view my work, they will question the placement of these objects, and think about the significance of the placement is.
ACT
- Banksy uses outdoor environments to emphasize and get the attention of passing viewers to see his art pieces of commentary on political and social topics, I used an outdoor environment to make the viewer question the unity of my photograph.
- To bring awareness to controversial and sensitive social and or political topics.
- Having art displayed in a location not associated with art or is not associated with the subjects and objects in the art piece, people pay more attention too.
- The central idea around my research was broken family relationships, and friendships.
- I inferred that the location of photography can change the meaning of a piece.
Bibliography
Magazine, S., & Enking, M. (2023, February 16). Banksy Unveils “Valentine’s Day Mascara,” a Statement on Domestic Violence. Smithsonian Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/new-banksy-mural-valentines-day-mascara-domestic-violence-180981644/
Mancoff, D. N. (2018). Banksy | Biography, Art, & Facts. In Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Banksy
Mobile Lovers, 2014. (2021, May 14). Banksy Explained. https://banksyexplained.com/mobile-lovers-2014-2/
Mancoff, D. N. (2018). Banksy | Biography, Art, & Facts. In Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Banksy
Mobile Lovers, 2014. (2021, May 14). Banksy Explained. https://banksyexplained.com/mobile-lovers-2014-2/