Old is New Again - Meg Neal

 For my concept I wanted to focus on the idea of a family portrait and how the idea of what a "family" is has changed since the 1800s when this type of photo was common. It also reflects the idea of me becoming my own family unit separate from my family as I get older. Even though it is a "family" portrait the only subjects are me and my cat, when a woman my age back in the 1800s would probably already be married with children, or at least on the way to that in the near future. Even though my cat isn't a human child, getting him has made me feel more mature and like I'm stepping more into adulthood as I now have a creature who I am the sole caregiver for. I dressed in semi-historical clothing and held my cat (Monty) I had a friend take the photo on my iPhone 15 as I sat against a plain backdrop. I then got a portrait photo from the Library of Congress, edited out the subject, created a selection on my own photo and made it look like the backdrop I was against. I then added some extra blur to my cat and used brushes to create a distressed effect before taking another photo from the Library of Congress that had broken and editing the broken part on top of my composition. 

Old is New Again– Pablo Villanueva

 The first thing I thought about when getting inspiration for my composition was how the older photography stood out from the images that were taken during the Civil War. I dedicated my image to the start of the Civil War. I took photos with my Canon T5i at a hidden cut from a trail I have in my neighborhood, which people know as the ‘beach’ because of the sand next to the stream of water. I thought this would be a perfect environment to pull off the concept of my Civil War photo. You can see the level of the water change higher and lower as the months go by. I feel this is like a hiding ‘chill’ spot away from any ruckus and dangers that could have been taking place during the start of the war. I look at this image as an escape from a nearby battlefront in South Carolina, next to shore where the event had taken place with the uncertainty on safety; this is a gateway area to really relax and have a smoke break. Many people had economic disruptions taking place with people trying to flee from the nearby shores to get shelter and safety. I wanted to go for an off-guard shot where the person seems to be relaxing while having a smoke break while looking at nature through his secret getaway. I chose to do a majority of my edits with my Apple Pencil and iPad. I was able to really get the hang of using a variety of brushes/filters and also make different variations of them to put together my approach. I also used AI and edited in a smokey layer to exaggerate the smoke over the cigarette. Overall this was a really interesting and great experience, and I look forward to learning more about what Photoshop has to offer. 

Old is New Again - Jennie Keophaphone

     For my concept, I wanted to reflect on how history and culture are tied together, along with my personal connection to culture itself. So I wanted to abstractly relate that to the history of being an Asian first coming to America. Many early Chinese immigrants in the mid-1800s came to work in the gold mines and agricultures jobs to support their families back home and escape poverty. However, at the time they were facing various pressures and ethnic discrimination leading to isolation and loneliness, in a completely new and unfamiliar place. So in this piece, I had a younger version of myself wearing a traditional Chinese qipao, isolated from other subjects in the shot, looking different and out of place based on the style of the people in the background to replicate those feelings. Which in a way, connects a small portion of Asian history in America to my personal identity of growing up as Asian American. As this out-of-place feeling is something that can be recognized through many people over time. Additionally, I integrated images from the Library of Congress through the background and the black borders on the image.

Old is New Again - Ashley Dinning

China painting has become a tradition within my family that not many artist practice anymore. My grandmother taught my mom how to china paint and my mom later showed me how to China paint. I included my mother in this photograph from the library of congress with another China painter. My concept was to showcase the deep historical roots this art form has in general and within my family. I wanted to highlight how this art form is becoming more scarce and how this delicate form of art is very intricate and historical.

Old is New Again - Miranda Santana

 

    This piece is meant to be a commentary on the imbalance of labor between men and women, especially when it comes to domestic relationships. Even though women have been part of the labor force for a very long time and today especially are required to be to be able to survive as the cost of living continues to climb, women are also widely still expected to be able to manage caring for children, getting an education, taking care of their own well-being and the well-being of others, and maintaining a home. Many of these tasks are not expected of men to the same degree, as traditionally they have been made to be the roles of mothers, wives, and daughters. It pulls from my own experiences living in a household where getting the men in my family to do an equal amount of housework as my mother and I is like asking them to hike barefoot up Mount Everest: they aren’t going to do it, and they think you are unreasonable for asking in the first place. 

    In this piece I used myself as the subject and placed myself in the role of a woman who is expected to be responsible for everything. I modeled the costuming after Rosie the Riveter style women who worked in factories and shipyards during World War II. I set up the scene to show some of the tasks that the character was responsible for: household maintenance, cooking, and cleaning. The posing and the wrench in the pot represents being overwhelmed by having too many different tasks to handle at once and becoming too tired and underappreciated to care anymore. The car visible through the window is meant to indicate the presence of a man, but one who is not actively assisting the character. I used several images from the Library of Congress to create a frame that ties together the overwhelmed subject of the image and the distressed state that the image is in.

 

 

Old Is New Again - Bryce Locaylocay

 

Something that immediately stood out to me when given the parameters of this project was “family portrait”. I’ve always found those very interesting in a way just because of how the people themselves are in the picture. Based on what I’ve seen, they seem to be very awkward, monotone, and or mundane. With this project I wanted to create my own portrait but as a royalty theme. First off, I asked three of my friends to each send me a picture of them in a suit in a very straight-stanced position. I then proceeded to blend them into the background which took quite a while but after, I found the outcome visually pleasing. I don’t know why but I like how some royal portraits contain animals in the background or involved with the individuals so in the back of my piece, I added a tiger. To make it more realistic I made the face and paw blurry. The original image of myself was standing, but after playing around it felt a little awkward so I photoshopped myself on a person in a seat which worked out well. The last thing I did was add some objects around the room to make it more realistic. Finally, being the cherry on top, adding the textures and ripped edges were easy to finalize the image.

Old is New Again - Aliyah Valcin

For this project, I choose to include me and my grandma as the subject in a rural scene. I was inspired to tap into my family roots. My grandma grew up in the 1940s and I never got a chance to see where she grew up. Even though I didn't have any context of the environment, when she described it, I tried to create an atmosphere that reflected that. I created a whole new scene from the original imagery. My grandma grew up in Alabama and had a large property with many farm animals and grew fresh produce. Even though I didn't have any photos of her house at the time I incorporated an old fashion house along with horses and a scene picture to create the envisioned atmosphere. My goal for this project was to put myself in a period that was around the time my grandma grew up. As a result of this project, I can see how dramatic of a shift I could take the original picture from the early 2000s and bring it to the 1900s. After creating the image, I experimented with adding multiple layers of brush textures and scratches to further the wear and tear of the photo. To make my image even more personalized and unique I added a picture of my hand and blended it with the image to represent more scratches and create varying texture.