Project: Recap

I started this course in February with a lot of  high expectations and very little knowledge about the art of photography and its background. During these last months, I have learned so much about the theory of photography, essential to create a successful shot. I've learned how to work with a professional camera and how and when to use depth of field, shutter speed or composition.  I have been able to overcome my fear and just randomly walk up to people and ask them if I can take a picture of them and I have learned that even the most random picture can have so many different meanings. All these experiences have been immensely enriching and have opened my eyes to the unbelievably interesting and huge world op photography. 

However, the most interesting part about this course has definitely been the opportunity to develop and work on my own photography project, which has been an amazing opportunity not only to practice the skills I've learned in the theory, but also to learn what a photographic essay is and what you need to be successful in creating one. 

It took me weeks to come up with a topic for my project, and although at first I wasn't sure if this topic could really produce some interesting pictures, I am super happy with my final project and with the development of my idea. 

The issue of social and personal alienation due to hyper-connectivity had been on my mind for a long time already, especially as I constantly get confronted to it in my degree. 

And I feel like this project has really given me the opportunity to visually express my thoughts on phone addiction in the 21st century. 

Not only because it is a growing issue, but also because it is something that I can totally relate with and that I constantly think of in my daily life because I experience it everyday. 

As I said in one of my previous posts already: This project couldn't be any more real, and I feel like the fact that I know so much about the issue and have very strong feelings about it has definitely helped me a lot to create shots that don't only show the problem of hyper-connectivity, but also try to convey the feelings of sadness, of guilt and anger that we should be facing when looking at the pictures.

I think that the main thing that I've learned from this experience is that photography is way more than just randomly taking a picture of a landscape or a flower, there is so much thinking to it, so much meaning that each and every person can put into a photograph, depending on their personal experiences and their identity. Photography is something so general and yet so personal at the same time, and that is exactly what I feel when I look at my photographic essay now, I'm showing a general problem, that is very personal and important to me, but as I present it to the world I leave it open for other interpretations from other people, maybe these interpretations will be completely different from mine, maybe they will be the same, because after all 'Photography, as a powerful medium of expression and communications, offers an infinite variety of perception, interpretation and execution.' (Ansel Adams) 

Project: Name, Titles and Meaning

During the whole process of developing my project idea, thinking about the different pictures and finally shooting the scenarios, I constantly had this one crucial question in my head: How am I going to call this project? 
I put so much work and effort into this project during the last few weeks, that I wanted it to have an extraordinary name, that sums up the topic in one or two words, yet leaves some questions open. 
I thought about calling it 'Generation Z', as I am fascinated by the term, but in the end, it wouldn't make a lot of sense regarding the fact that what I want to show in my project doesn't only refer to the generation Z but also to other generations. 
So I went back to the very beginning when I presented my project idea in class and I reread a quote that I used as inspiration for my project and had completely forgotten about afterwards : 'The difference between technology and slavery is that slaves are fully aware that they are not free.' (Nassim Nicholas Taleb) 
And I think you couldn't say it much better! We've literally become slaves, that don't control their actions anymore, because they are forced to stare at the screen of their phones. 
That's how the name SCREEN SLAVES came into my mind. Of course it still might not be the most original name ever, as I already heard people referring to the friend sitting next to them on their phone as 'screen slave', but nevertheless I feel like it is a name that totally matches the pictures and their message. 

Moreover, I just quickly want to explain the different titles of each of my shots. They may seem a bit odd when first seeing them, because they are so random. But that is exactly the purpose of these titles. Calling the images 'family', 'love' or 'gardening' is another way to show how much we depend on our phones. Random, daily situations or relationships, that 10 years ago we would've never associated to phones have become unthinkable without the little device in our hands, and thus these names just reflect the everyday that is constantly controlled by our hyper-connectivity.

Final Project Photos and Annotation: Shot 7 (Conclusion)

WC

Inspired by Antoine Geiger and his SUR-FAKE series, the final shot is meant to very drastically convey the message and it’s importance by showing how the person’s face is literally sucked into the phone. Why did I choose to edit this last shot on Photoshop? Because I thought that as a conclusion, it would be interesting to just visually make it even clearer what all the previous shots have already tried to say one way or another.

The shot features a girl on the toilet, because the bathroom is one of the most intimate places ever, in movies or TV shows people sometimes sit on the toilet for hours so they can read a magazine, contemplate life and most importantly won’t have to confront other people. What this shot shows is, how this has changed with the emergence of mobile phones. We don’t want to confront people outside, yet we also don’t want to be alone when sitting on the toilet because we’re so used to being connected 24/7 that when we’re alone ‘it feels like a problem that we need to solve’. (Turkle)

I feel like this last shot should in a way also be shocking people, show them what we’ve become, sitting on the toilet with our faces sucked into our phones, sad isn’t it.

We had an evolution, from just a group of friends on a table, to someone alone in a shop, a mother-daughter relationship in the kitchen or a married couple in a coffee shop, and the result is that far from only alienating us from those that we love and that are closest to us, whether it’d be at home or in a public space, we also alienate us from ourselves, we loose the ability to be alone even in one of the most random situations, such as going to the toilet.

The phone has become an integral part of us, without which we feel wrong, sick and lost.

Final Project Photos and Annotation: Shot 6

Love

Personally, this is my favourite shot, because it has sooo much to offer and leaves room for so many different interpretations and ways of looking at it.

Taken from an outside point of view, it features a couple in a coffee shop, a public space. Nevertheless, they seem to have a really intimate moment, considering that the woman’s head is lying on the man’s shoulder. Thus, physically they couldn’t be much closer.

However, the fact that both of them are staring at their phones and seem to forget about the other one, takes them hundreds of miles away from each other.

It seems like even love can’t resist against the power and the influence that phones have on us.

Why did I choose to present a couple that’s already a bit older? Why didn’t I just take pictures of a couple my age. The thing is, that the aim of this whole photographic essay is to show different things, have individual pictures that each say something different on their own, but still connect and have the same message as the others.

Thus, I wanted to show that it is an issue that doesn’t only involve young people and the ‘generation Z’, we live in a world where hyper-connectivity has become so important that it doesn’t only concern teenagers anymore, it is an issue that all age classes are infected with. As mentioned before, this meaning is also conveyed in the 'Family' shot, nevertheless, the meaning is still slightly different, because in contrast to this one, the mother-daughter relationship clearly features both sides, whereas in this one, the focus is definitely just on the older generation. 

Talking about composition, this shot has so much to offer as well. Because we look at the scenario from an outside point of view, we can see the reflection in the window, the light stripes going through the man’s face, the windows of the reflected building, etc…

All these things create new meanings and help different viewers to read the photograph differently, according to their own experiences. The possibilities that this shot has to offer in terms of 'reading it' are endless and of course they depend on the person that looks at the picture.

Final Project Photos and Annotation: Shot 5

Gardening

Mowing the lawn: an ordinary activity that we might not do everyday, but we have to do it regularly, it is part of a series of housework or gardening tasks that we have to do.

Nature everywhere and a stunning view in the background, yet the person in the picture is looking down at her phone, not even paying the slightest attention to the beauty nature has to offer. Playing around with your phone while mowing the lawn does maybe seem a bit crazy and you could consider this shot as an exaggeration, as mocking the people that are constantly playing around with their phones, nevertheless it shows how even housework has become unbearable without our phones.

This shot was inspired by my aunt, who once told me that whenever she wanted to relax or calm down she just started doing housework because it helped her to have some ‘me time’ and reflect on her life and on the things she was worrying about. After that, I caught her in the garden once, watering the flowers with one hand, holding her phone in the other one.

What happened to the ‘thinking about life while doing housework’ to the so much needed ‘me time’. The ‘me time’ becomes a ‘me and the rest of the virtual world time’ because we get so used to being connected that once we’re not, we feel like something is missing and we want to get it back as soon as possible.

Particularly interesting in this shot is also to take a look at the composition. The lines in the background horizontally divide the picture into more or less three different parts. The first one featuring the sky, the person’s head and the phone, the second one including the view in the background and the fence and the last one featuring the mower, the boots and the lawn, creating a certain balance in the photograph.