As I have mentioned in the project proposal, I want to create a book that contents sophisticated, metaphorical and artistic artworks through different media and mediums, as well as a video to conclude the entire project. I have developed total 36 artworks to be involved in the book I am going to create. During the making of the artworks, I have utilised my photography skills and darkroom chemical developing skills, scanning skills and digital editing skills with Adobe Photoshop. Now let's go through each artwork and talk about the details how I have made them and their individual concepts and ideas behind.
I name this image "Burden" I have photographed this by a Canon 60d DSLR camera with a 50mm prime lens, and brought the photograph to Photoshop and edited the facial part into a glitch effect, the subject's dress up in this image appears to be formal and you may notice that there are many stones in the subject's front pocket. The stones indicate the meaning of "burden" in this image, and the glitch effect on the facial part indicates the concept of "corruption" that metaphorically represent the situation when computer corrupts and glitch occurs. The formal dress up of the subject visually relates to the ordinary workers and general dress up for people who are employed nowadays. It is often and commonly agreed by people that working for jobs is tiring and exhausting as if it is a burden of life; and this image reflects what Jason Summers has wrote in his philosophy article: Humanity’s main problem is most of their time is dedicated not toward learning, but toward reproducing, eating, sleeping, working pointless jobs, and general existence. (Jason Summers November 30, 2009)
I name this image "Broken" this photo was also taken by a Canon 60d DSLR camera with a 50mm lens, it is a snapshot of a broken glass window. I have discussed the interaction between snapshot photography and conceptual photography in my thesis last semester, and I have concluded that all images contain concepts differently by different perception and different opinions of different people. The concept of this snapshot that I intend to deliver through this image vaguely and metaphorically denotes the characteristic of corruption, that is being fragile and broken. And this image reflects the definition of corruption: The word corrupt when used as an adjective literally means "utterly broken".
I name this image "Chaos" the process of creating this piece contains many different methods, firstly I had an experimentation in the darkroom exposing a mask and branches on a black and white photographic paper and developing them by chemicals, then I brought the dried up work to a scanner and scanned the image in 1200 dpi, the reason I scanned in such a high rate of dpi is because the higher dpi I scan the better image quality I get, and it is good to reprint the image again not losing anything. Besides scanning the photograph I exposed and developed in the dark room, I also scanned other objects to support making this piece, I rubbed a piece of paper into a twisted ball and scanned its form, and I also scanned a few shining jewelries including a crown shaped jewellery that's place at the centre of the mask's forehead. After I had all of these digital image files, I brought them into Adobe Photoshop to proceed the editing, I used a drawing pad and drew many messy lines at the head of the mask, which brings up the meaning of chaos then I placed the scanned items onto the image, the jewelries that denotes the meaning of wealth were placed on the surface of the messy lines to combine and contrast the meaning of chaos, together they are visually related to the "chaos of corruption" as the contrast of wealth and mess. The mask is the main contour of this image, it seemingly and visually metaphors a subject, the "chaos of corruption" appears to be on the head of the subject as if it's the subject's mind, brain or thoughts that are corrupted and messy; the twisted paper ball that was placed at the month seemingly denotes a meaning of destruction. The branches and wickers that were exposed on the photographic paper along with the mask gives the imagery a "dead" or "wicked" mood and they interact through the eyes of the subject as if the subject is blind in a wicked mood.
I name this image "Corruption" that directs to the concept of computer corruption. This piece was done by many methods as well, the background of this image was also developed in the darkroom by exposing those pins and injectors on a black and white photographic paper. I collected an abandoned computer screen from college and brought it to the photo studio and photographed it with studio lightings by a Canon 60d DSLR camera with a 50mm lens. The wrapped spade king card was scanned by a scanner in 1200 dpi. The making of this piece was done in Adobe Photoshop, I duplicated the background image into 2 and collaged them, and I cut off the computer screen from the photograph I took in the studio and placed it on the surface, then I cut off the wrapped spade king card from what I scanned and placed it on the screen surface of the computer screen and added a glitch effect onto the spade king card. I'm delivering an idea of relating the corruption scheme that exists in our society to the general computer corruption, as if computer corruption metaphors the corruption in our society. The background of this image denotes a concept of "virus" as the injectors are generally used medically to deliver certain medicine or virus, and the sharpness of the pins around the injectors visually alarm and stimulate the perception and pain might be perceived by such subject matter, their composition metaphorically narrates the pain of corruption as if it's infected. The composition of the computer screen within a glitch effected spade king card relates the concept of computer corruption, the spade king card metaphors the royalty as it is the upper class or governmental power in the modern time, the glitch effect on the card represents and narrates the fact that the governments are often corrupted, and it reflects what Jason Summers has wrote: If politicians are not trying to print up money, shave the gold coins, or other corruption schemes involving money, they’ve been guilty continual budget deficits, never having enough money, and war machines, with their imperialistic ambitions to take over the world. (Jason Summers November 30, 2009)
I name this image "Desire of Decay" as if the decayed flowers have their dream to avoid death and become one of the graphical flowers on the dress, to forget about the reality and merge into fantasy, this image narrates my hope of our corrupted world: I hope that our world could be more of an optimistic and imaginative world full of positive, beautiful and artistic fantasy rather than the tainted, darken and rotten minds among the humanity and society. This photograph was taken by a Canon 60d DSLR camera with a 50mm lens and edited and adjusted in Adobe Lightroom.
I name this image "Destruction" this photograph was taken by a Canon 60d DSLR camera with a 50mm lens, and it was taken in the photo studio by studio tungsten lighting, edited and adjusted in Adobe Lightroom. I captured the motion of breaking, destroying and destructing a piece of spoiled papaya fruit. This image also narrates a hope of mine about corruption, that is "corruption should be destroyed and destructed" the spoiled papaya indicates the concept of "corruption" as the word "corruption" is defined in the dictionary: decayed, putrid; when the word corrupt is used as a verb with objects it also has a definition that is to mar and spoil.
I name this image "Filthy King" this piece is done by the same methods that I have mentioned above, it's based on scanning, and cut&paste in Adobe Photoshop. The background image contains the shapes of crowns, branches, wickers and jewelries, and on the surface there lays a wrapped diamond king card. The word "diamond" has the definition of the expensive stone that exists in our world and people seem to be crazy about this type of stone, the diamond card here represents wealth and the king card represents royalty as the governmental power of our modern world, the card narrates that a corrupted and wealthy king intends to cover and disguise their real side by a pointless intention of using a food wrap as if it wants to conserve and keep fresh of the corruption scheme that's going on the inside. The background image contrasts and composites the whole image to visually add more "wealthy" significance into it, and the wickers and branches gives the image a "dead" and "dark" mood that aids the mood I'm trying to deliver through this image.
I name this image "Filthy Queen" this photograph was taken by a Canon 60d DSLR camera with a 50mm lens and it was edited and adjusted in Adobe Lightroom. The concept of this image is quite similar to the image above the "Filthy King" I contrasted a queen diamond card with dead flowers and smoke to add more dramatic mood into this photograph as if it describes "the drama queen"
I name this photograph "Murderer" which reflects the subject that appears in this image, this photograph was taken at night by a Canon 60d DSLR camera with a 50mm lens, and it was adjusted in Adobe Lightroom and then I added the glitch effect at the facial part of the subject in Photoshop. The object in the image which is a globe being stabbed by money as if it is bleeding, the making of the object was done with a drill and red water colour, the dollar bills were printed with indication "props purpose only" to avoid forgery. I firstly carefully drilled holes around the globe and poked the printed dollar bills into the holes then added the water colour. The concept of this image is more direct than other images, the subject in the image is the tittle of this image - the "murderer" of our earth/world.
These 7 images together make 1 section of the book that I'm working on, I name them "Rotten" They were photographed in the photo studio with studio tungsten lightings, and they were photographed with a Canon60d DSLR camera with a 50mm lens, and they were edited and adjusted in Adobe Lightroom. These 7 images contain uncomfortable visual perception, they are spoiled, rotten and nasty, and the reason that I'm applying such unpleasant imagery into the project is to reflect the definition of corruption through dictionary: infected and tainted; decayed, putrid; when the word corrupt is used as a verb with objects it also has a definition that is to mar and spoil.
I name this image "Royal Lies" the making of this piece was done by many methods, I firstly exposed a few objects on the black and white photographic papers and developed them by chemicals in the darkroom, then I scanned the dried up artworks in 1200 dpi into digital image. I developed and edited this piece on Adobe Photoshop by cutting and pasting the shapes of a crown, a broken leaf and a broken butterfly onto the surface of the two-mask image. In this image, the two masks are considered as the subjects and the crowns that were placed on the forehead of the subjects represent that they are the royalty as if they are the modern governmental power. I used a drawing pad and drew white messy lines at the eyes of the subject as if they are scratched off and blind. The broken leaf and butter fly shapes that were placed at the mouths of the subject indicate the significance of "lies" the word "lie" is considered as a directory term which reflects the broken shapes. I also adjusted the colour of image into blue because blue colour is considered as a type of cold, cool and chilling colour and represents a sad mood through visual which reflects the concept that I'm narrating: the lies of our governmental power are sad.
I name this piece "Royal Virus" this image was also done by the same methods as the last image above by developing in the darkroom and scanning into digital format. I edited this by Adobe Photoshop as well by cutting and pasting different objects that I exposed and developed in the darkroom. Firstly let's take a look at the background of this image, the background appears to be a bunch of glass slags from a broken glass bottle which describes and reflects one of the definitions of "corruption": The word corrupt when used as an adjective literally means "utterly broken".
and the crown on the surface of the broken glass bottle on this image represents the royalty and the modern governmental power, the broken leaf that extends from the crown metaphorically describes the crown (royalty and modern governmental power) is a scarcity. And the injector in the broken leaf that squirts a bird feather represents the word "virus" in this image, as if the modern governments squirts a virus into a broken society with their scarcity of empathy.
I name this photograph "Royalty" this photograph was taken by a Canon 60d DSLR camera with a 50mm lens. Before taking this photograph, I had planned the entire photograph and done some preparation by picking the upper cards such as king cards, queen cards and jack cards out from playing cards then wrapping them with food wrap; and I also have collected flowers and let them decay and lose their freshness, then I stringed all of these objects onto an umbrella that the subject held, but the umbrella was not taken within this picture on purpose not to distract visual perception and understanding. I focused on the upper cards that I had wrapped before shooting in this photograph because they represent "royalty" in the photograph as king, queen and jack are the metaphor of royalty, and the decayed flowers around these upper cards contrast their characteristics of being corrupted; the subject in this photograph wore a mask with 3 red tears drawn on the mask, and position as if he's holding a sword as a "knave the knight"(jack card) to sadly protect the "royalty" with drops of tears.
These 2 photographs are going to be 1 section in the book that I'm working on, I name them "Scar" these 2 photographs were both taken by a Canon 60d DSLR camera with a 50mm lens. Scars often leads the visual perception to an unpleasant stage which reflects the unpleasantness of corruption, and they are also metaphorically described as "infection" or "infected" which reflects the definition of word corruption: .infected and tainted; The tone of the first photograph appears to be blue as a cold colour, I have applied this blue colour tone to add more of a sad mood into the photograph. The mask with glitch effect next to the wound in the second photograph contrasts the scar as if it narrates and relates to the computer corruption phenomenon as well metaphorically indicates the society corruption phenomenon.
I name this image "Secrets" this piece of work was done by many methods including exposing on the photographic papers and developing them in the darkroom, scanning, photography and Adobe Photoshop editing. While I was developing this photographic paper, I mixed too much water with the chemicals and the image appeared a surprising effect on the right top corner which adds the mood of "destruction" to this image. I also exposed a pair of sunglasses and pieces of reaped off papers with paperclips, the pieces of reaped off papers with paperclips appear as a destruction of filed documents in a way to keep secrets; the mouth with a crown jewellery indicates "royalty" in this image as if the royalty keeps some secrets away. The colour choice of this image is also blue on purpose to add a sad mood.
I name this image "Seize the Secret" the making of this image was done by darkroom exposing and developing, scanning and overlapping them with adjustment of opacity on Adobe Photoshop. The lock on the branch represents the secret in this image, and the distant key on the other side is the key to expose the secret as if it's hard for the key to expose the secret within the distance. The hand grabs the whole as if it seizes the secret.
I name this photograph "Stolen Wealth" this photograph was taken at night by a Canon 60d DSLR camera with a 50mm lens. I wrapped the tree with food wrap before taking this photograph, the tree with flowers on it metaphorically represents "wealth" in this image; the subject with a shovel and sleeves up as if he intends to steal wealth and the wrap around the tree narrates that the stolen wealth will corrupt ultimately. I added glitch effect at he subject's dramatic shadow on Adobe Photoshop to relate the computer corruption into the image as a metaphor of this stealing corruption scheme.
These 3 photographs make 1 section of the book that I'm working on, I name them "tainted" as the subject matter in these images are dirty and tainted, they also reflect one of the definitions of word corruption: .infected and tainted; The dirt of the subject matter also metaphorically indicate poverty in these images, and the gestures of these hands appear as if they desire of something. These photographs were taken in the photo studio by studio tungsten lighting, and they were shot with a Canon 60d DSLR camera with a 50mm lens, edited and adjusted by Adobe Lightroom.
These two photographs are going to be in 1 section of the book that I'm working on, I name them "Tears" these photographs were shot with a Canon 60d DSLR camera with a 50mm lens and they were photographed in the photo studio by studio tungsten lightings. I shot all my photographs in raw files for easy editing and adjusting purpose, I edited them in Adobe Lightroom. The subject in these photographs appear to be tainted and dirty as a metaphor of poverty as if the subject is poor, the jewelries that extend from the eye of the mask are the metaphor of the "tears" as the title of these images, they also metaphorically indicate wealth. What do the poor cry for? They cry for wealth.
I name this image "The Key" this image was done by darkroom exposing and developing, scanning and edited in Adobe Photoshop. The background of this image is the metaphor of the destruction of our modern world's systems - the sophisticated paperworks. And the key with an emboss effect is as a sign as if it indicates that the destruction of these sophisticated paperworks is the key to resolve.
This photograph was taken in a shopping mall by a Canon 60d DSLR camera with a 50mm lens, and it was firstly adjusted in Adobe Lightroom and edited in photoshop with a glitch effect at the reflection of the subject on the glass window. I name this photograph "True Side" the glitch effect of the subject that's reflected on the window is the "true side" of this image as the title, it delivers a concept that our real and true side that reflects from humanity is a computer corruption phenomenon as a metaphor.
This photograph was taken in the photo studio with studio flash lights and it was taken by a Canon 60d dslr camera with a 50mm lens. I name this photograph "Wealth the Poorest", this glass goblet looks fancy as if it represents wealth in this photograph, and the dirty and rubbed paper cup represents poverty in this photograph, the composition of these two objects reflect what Nietzsche. Werke in drei Bänden said "Our ‘rich people’ – those are the poorest! The real purpose of all wealth has been forgotten!"
These photograph was taken in the photo studio with studio tungsten lights, and it was taken by a Canon 60d dslr camera with a 50mm lens, I name this image "Wealth" and it's going to be a page of the book that I'm working on, the idea and the concept of this image simply implies the meaning of "wealth"
I name this image "Wealthy Glitch" this photograph was firstly taken by a Canon 60d dslr camera with a 50mm lens and then it was adjusted in Adobe Lightroom and then Adobe Photoshop for the glitch effect. The cigar in this image is the metaphor of wealth, as it is not smoked by poor people, and the food wrap around the hands implies the intension of "covering up" the corruption scheme and in fact it still is spoiled on the inside and too late to conserve. The glitch effect relates to the computer corruption as a metaphor of society corruption.
I name this photograph "Wicked" this photograph was firstly taken by a Canon 60d dslr camera with a 50mm lens and then edited in Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. I shot this image as an improvisation, I often go to college by the same path and there's a decayed and dead tree on the way, it inspired and triggered me to take this photograph. Dead tree often brings a mood of darkness and death which reflects the mood of corruption. And the glitch effect of the mask relates to computer corruption phenomenon as a metaphor of society corruption.
