Shock Advertising

A large portion of our class this past Wednesday was focused on Chapter 6 of "Visual Communication: Images with Messages" and shock advertising.  Benetton is one of the main utilizers of this type of advertising, incorporating controversial ideas into his advertisements.  One such advertisement is of AIDS advocate David Kirby on his deathbed, his father, sister, and niece at his side (shown below).

After being published in Life magazine, the photograph was still largely ignored.  Accordingly, Benetton got permission from Kirby's family to feature the image in an advertisement for one of his stores.  This raised extreme controversy.  Was it right to use this heartbreaking image for something so frivolous as clothing?  Morally, I would like to say "no way," but, in the end, the photograph got the publicity it deserved from this irrelevant usage and Benetton, once again, grew in popularity.  This is the epitome of the saying: “all publicity is good publicity”.  Benetton received the exposure it craved, and earned the label of a rebel, appealing to teenagers.  Calvin Klein also earned this reputation with his sexually precocious portrayal of young boys and over-sexualizing of young girls or women who look like children.  Both names seem to describe how to break taboos and still continue to improve business.

As Newton N. Mino said in "A Vaster Wasteland", children have been "bombarded... [by] commercials disguised as programs and with endless displays of violence and sexual exploitation" for over fifty years (2). With this, another question arises: Is it more moral for a company exaggerate how great a product is (lie) or tell the raw, gruesome truth about an entirely separate entity?  It seems to me that, in the toxic world of advertising, it really doesn't matter which extreme a company chooses to take.  One thing is true: there is no happy medium if a company wants to stand out in a sea of billboards, newspaper ads, and commercials.  If a company wants publicity, it needs to think of a new, iconic way to captivate consumers. As heart wrenching as it is, over-sexualizing objects and people or displaying controversial images may just be the way to go!

Contact Sheet

During my volleyball photo shoot, I took about 60 pictures. Here are my top 26 in a "contact sheet".

Self Portraits with Photoshop

During class today, I explored Adobe Photoshop for the first time.  After manipulating some of my earlier photographs (one of the images of a volleyball from my earlier blog post), I cropped, enhanced, and manipulated a portrait of myself.

I began with this image:

This image is a little dark and I am not excited by the cinder block wall behind me, so my first step in editing was to adjust the exposure.  After adjusting the exposure the cinder block virtually vanished.  Next, to add color to my now white-washed face, I increased the contrast and sharpness of the photograph.  After these edits, I ended up with this:

Finally, I adjusted the color balance, increasing blue and red levels and cropped the photograph so my face was centered.

After, I put the image on my very own Visual Literacy business card.

Stocking

Never heard of stocking?!  Well apparently it's the new planking!  Before taking this class, that would have been gibberish to me too.  I'll show you how to stock!

First, pick out a "Stock Photo".  Then recreate it.

Below are some examples of my stocking.  Click images to view in full size.

On the far right, is the stock photo I found on google.  In the center, is the picture I took using my MacBook's iSight camera.  Finally, the photo on the far left is my final product.

Center: "Stockfresh" photograph

Left: iSight picture of me

Right: Edited image

Left: "Shutterstock" image

Right: My version

Right: "Shutterstock" image

Left: My version

Visions of a Volleyball

This image is a fantastic example of the use of depth of field. The lens is focused on the volleyball in the foreground using a shallow depth of field.  Due to this, the trees in the background are a blur and the volleyball net fades into the distance, creating an elongating illusion.  The shadow of the net in the sand also adds to the depth of this photograph.  The randomness imprints in the sand shows how the area is so treaded on in disarray.  There is no clear path.  The repetition of the prints in the ground and the square patter in the net make people take a second look, appealing to humans' curious nature by prompting questions like:  What happened here?  Who did this?  Why?

In this image I, of course, utilized natural light. The natural light draws the viewer's attention to the upper left corner and creates a warm, optimistic, summery feel.  This photograph makes me nostalgic for warm sand and relaxing days in the sun on the beach surrounded by friends and family.  Another aspect of this picture that I love is the contrast of textures.  The smooth, leathery ball to the rough, grainy sand seem almost tangible.

Juxtaposition occurred here with the unexpected way the ball seems to be balanced on the bungee chord, and the bungee chord on the tip of the flagpole.  This photo comments on the balance of work (the AU flag in the background, signifying education) and play (the volleyball) in my life.

This photo incorporates both focus and lack of focus.  I took this focus by following a volleyball as it rose and fell through the air.  The movement of the camera created a blurring effect in the sky, but I made sure the camera stayed focused on the ball, the focal point of the photograph.  This photograph implies constant motion and rising and falling action.

The shadow of my hand on the volleyball tells a story is some ways.  It tells the audience that someone is reaching for the ball and, presumably, will proceed to play.  All this is shown without even showing a person in the photograph.

Momentous or Mundane

Terror.  There is no other way to describe the looks on the two women's faces besides pure terror.  This image did a fantastic job in exaggerating the 5.8-magnitude earthquake that apparently "rattled buildings... and forced workers to flee as ceiling tiles and moldings crumbled and crashed to the ground."  At first glance, I believe it!  I believe that these women were forced into the streets in hopes of escaping from the terrible quake.  Even though this was not at all the experience most American University students or nearby DC residents experienced, this image makes it seem like the entire district was in chaos.  That is the exact message the Washington Post wanted to spread. 

As a consumer it is the terror that one sees, but as a photographer the first thing one may notice is the off-center placement of the women.  This is an archetype, a universal constant in the world of photography.  Asymmetrical compositions allows the reader more visual stimulation than if this picture were symmetrical.

Further along in the article, Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Craig Fugate claimed, "...our immediate next thought was is it a bomb blast...” The two women in the forefront of the photograph appear so terror-stricken that a bomb blast seems like a logical explanation for this.  The photographer utilized his knowledge of emotion and how it impacts the viewer to create this eye-catching image and convey the emotion of terror.

The two women also seem incredibly confused.  In the article, a child says, “The Navy Yard needs a better mass communication system...They have loud speakers on some of the buildings (they call the system Big Voice), but when they use it, the sound just echoes around the buildings and gets muddled, so it’s impossible to understand what they’re saying.”  This description of mass confusion is clearly supported by the women in back grasping onto the women closest to the camera out of desperation.  By utilizing the woman's strength and desperation in the grasp, the photographer created a sense of impending movement, making the photograph more dynamic.

Although this picture portrays the Washington Post's "view" on the earthquake, it aggrandizes the severity of the earthquake in reality.  The media, in this case, is manufacturing fear in order to increase sales; making what seemed to most as mundane and unimportant into something that is momentous and possibly life-threatening.