For this project, I chose to composite an image that regarded the Western world's history of stereotyping different cultures and groups of people. In this image, I referenced the period's studio sittings with random objects such as Southeast Asian tropical plants, a Chinese lion statue, and a poster for herbal medicine. The purpose of this composition is to call to the practice of stereotyping in history as I represent my Filipino culture in my attire, the barong tagalog, but am surrounded by objects that do not quite fit my own heritage. The expression is meant to convey a sense of amusement as the subject understands the ignorance of the random props. We see examples of this in wet plates when we look to the work of Edward S. Curtis in his book, The North American Indian, where native people are presented in stereotypical and often arbitrary costumes for their own culture. I lifted the cracked plate in the top left from the Library of Congress and used stock images for the Fu Dog and Chinese calligraphy poster.
This photographic work entitled “Pearl of the Orient” is a landscape-oriented portraiture with the main subject having an amused expression on their face as they’re sitting down in a chair wearing traditional Filipino attire. The subject is surrounded by various objects including tropical plants, a Chinese lion statue, and a poster hanging on the right of the photograph. The texture of the photograph includes a slight grainy texture and is worn down as parts of the original photograph are washed out and faded into the color of the border. A large crack is present on the top left of the photograph. With slight discoloration and lighting differences, the light is placed over the subject as the surrounding areas are slightly darker.
ReplyDeleteFrom the description of elements in the photograph, the work is mainly about portraiture that is taken with amusement as the items around the subject aren’t cohesive in terms of culture and describing the subject’s background. As the subject wore traditional Filipino attire, inanimate objects surrounding the subject appear to not be under the same cultural aspect as they come from different cultural backgrounds such as the Chinese dog lion statue and the hanging poster for herbal medicine. The possible meaning derived from this could be the Western’s ignorance in the knowledge of different cultural groups and applying and/or possibly forcing them on cultural groups. The treatment of the portrait could also allude to the idea as the “broken” elements of the wet plate image signifies losing part of your cultural identity visually because of enforced ignorance. The “broken” and faded parts of the image also gives the idea of blurring the lines between different cultural groups and putting them under one singular idea.
With this work, the content is incredibly clever and witty in terms of the meaning while using an extremely common idea in wet plate images from the 19th century. Usually these portraits are done with only the person as the main subject but the idea of incorporating other objects especially to signify towards one’s personal culture already made the photograph more interesting to engage with as the viewer’s experience includes identifying everything shown in the photo to try to get an insight in who the person is and their background. Normally portraits are done in a portrait orientation but with the items included in the work, having it in landscape gives more breathing room otherwise, keeping it in portrait would’ve made the composition incredibly busy and not bear resemblance to 19th century portrait photographs. Technique-wise, the inclusion of the cracks and faded aspects of the photograph was done successfully in showing a damaged wet plate image. Usually dark spots of damage are present in these but I think it would’ve taken the attention away from the content of the image from the contrast so what was added in was utilized very well. As a suggestion, having a dark vignette in the photograph could’ve added more contrast with the lighting that is on the subject but not so heavily that the items would get lost. The color of the photograph is also reminiscent of wet plate images but possibly darkening it slightly would make the photograph resemble more of 19th century studio sitting portraits.
DeleteThis work accurately resembles images from 19th century wet plate portraits while also using witty contexts in conveying the suggested meaning and purpose of the photograph. In terms of subject matter, the composition was eye-catching and dynamic as it engages the viewer to pick out details that wouldn’t be noticed at first glance, piecing together clues to learn more about the person – though unsuccessfully as they’re not culturally consistent as possibly intended. The techniques that were utilized elevated the photograph into accurate representation of old photographs as the cracks and fades were composited naturally, giving the sense of time and damage as damaged wet plates usually show over time. Small adjustments in lighting and coloring could be added to further expand on the idea effectively and possibly bring the viewers’ attention to the subject’s facial expression as a clue to the main idea of the image. The entire piece was composed together with much intent and thought as details were thoroughly pieced together with intention.