For this project, I was inspired by Chinese lanterns and fireworks. I used one of my photographs from the Chinese Lantern Festival in Cary from December 2023 to begin with a mystical, nighttime focal point. In Chinese mythology, the snake is a symbol of the gods and represents natural elements of wind, rain, and electricity and the snake goddess Nuwa is known as the creator of humanity. I explored the Botanical Gardens on campus at night and composited two locations using long exposure that would contribute to the composition and elements of life/myth. I then photographed light streaks using sparklers in a 1-3 second exposure because I wanted to retain a firework/explosive energy in the composition.
The photo was taken and edited by Jonah Sanderson and the name of his work is Celestial Garden. The photo is vertical and is very dynamic. The photo seems well exposed and well edited to make a convincing scene. The focal point of the photo is a man made rock formation with a circle in the center. There is foliage all around it and even a few sprigs in the center of the formation. There is a colorful snake dragon made up of blues, greens, reds and whites. There is also a female with long red hair, yellow horns, a colorful snake dragon tail and blue, red and green squiggles coming from her bodice. The snake dragon and woman's tail are more specifically ones you would find in Chinese mythology. They are both around blue and yellow rocks that are behind the initial rock formation. The entire top half of the photo there is sparkler and firework lights that have created more movement throughout the photo. There is also a small streak of sparkler light at the bottom right of the photo.
ReplyDeleteThis is dealing with Chinese mythology, not sure if there is a specific story being represented as I am only familiar with Chinese mythology in a broad sense. From the description given it more specifically about the symbol of the gods and of which natural elements they control. The snake dragon represents wind, rain, and electricity, while the snake goddess Nuwa is the creator of humanity. This work wants to show how they work together and to show that they are in tune with one another. It also seems to be a photo of celebration for the two. If not for them there would be chaos of elements and there would be no humans.
This project does well to address the parameters of this project. The initial photo is taken at night and the sparkler photos transform the space and add movement to the piece. The only thing I am unsure of is the snake dragon and the goddess, I do not know if this is an original or if this was used from an external source. Most of the blending is well done, there are only one or two spots I see that are distracting. The formation needs a little more blending on the edges because there is a slight glow around it that is a little distracting. The sparkler lights at the bottom do not have a natural startpoint instead it is abruptly cut off on the left spot. The formation picture also looks a little blurry but it isn’t super distracting.
Humanity seems to always have liked mythology, from pretty much every history book you read you find some sort of mythology in it. This composite brings to the table Chinese mythology and represents it in a digital way. By bringing it to the digital world you can attract a different audience and possibly spark a new wave of interest. This interest may cause people to visit and read about China and its mythologies and explore what they have to offer. It can then spark people to see something in a different light or be exposed to cultures that are not their own.
I really like this composite and find that it is done very well. Other than the very few concerns I had, you seem to have completed this project very well. You used lights and night time photography to tell a story that I have not heard of. I learned something new about Chinese mythology and it was done by a description and a very good composite.