Medium Specificity

     When you were looking at the images above, did you start thinking about where they were taken?  Did you feel uncomfortable at all or annoyed because you didn’t know where the subjects are set?
I hope you said no because I didn’t and that is exactly what I’m exploring so just say no to the question above.
If you said yes, then you’re wrong. 

      This absence of setting is something that I wanted explore in the art of photography.  My other Media Arts classes actually inspired this work.  In 114 we watched a film called Never Cry Wolf.  It is an amazing movie that embodies the storytelling style of elemental narrative that had extremely wide establishing shots that really showed when where the story was taking place.  This showed me the power that establishing shots can have in a film.  In 185 we recently edited footage for silent documentaries that our classmates had filmed. As we were editing this footage, we had to keep in mind the use of wide shots of the setting as well as close ups of the subjects in the film.  This got me thinking about what these wide shots really did and how they add to the film.  The use of establishing shots in a film sets the story in a place and time.  Without these two details, the story has less meaning and the audience is left wondering where they are.

     When creating a film, the filmmaker always has to take these establishing shots.  Without these shots, the viewers are uncomfortable or squirmy because they don’t know where the acton is taking place.  It is very unnerving to have a bunch of closeups in a film without any establishing shots when we have no way of knowing the setting.  In photography, it’s much different.  This uneasiness doesn’t exist and photographer does not have to worry about orienting the viewer in a specific time and place.  We see a picture of something close up and we just say “Wow, what a cool shot of a flower.”  We don’t sit on the edge of the seat or hop up and down on our feet waiting for the establishing shot of the whole garden of flowers or the whole field.  This is very interesting to me that we don’t have a want to know the time and place of a photo and we are able to simply appreciate what we see in frame.  It is interesting that this week we read the article by McCloud about showing and telling because I chose to focus on an aspect of a medium that really makes no excuse for not doing either.  There are no words to tell us where these pictures were taken and there are no wide shots to show us either.  They are just there and completely ignore the question of setting.  

      To create this project I simply went for a walk around my apartment complex with my camera and macro lenses. I looked for simple rather everyday things that could be interesting to see up close and captured them.  After my photo walk, I moved the photos I had taken onto my computer and did a few little editing tweaks to enhance the color.  I found it very enjoyable to be able to go out and simply take pictures of objects that I thought would be interesting.

      While working on this project I really thought much harder about the films that I make and the necessity of establishing shots.  It made me realize that without them, the audience is somewhat lost and confused.  I realized while I was exploring photography the ability the medium has to tell stories without being so explicit as film tends to be.  In the process of this work, I have grown slightly more to understand the different storytelling powers and aspects that the different media have and how better to use each to the benefit of the piece.