Published 2023/10/25 at 7:49 pm
When I was shooting, I was actually very nervous. Since my mask also includes a head cover, I don’t know if my model can tolerate this feeling, also due to some of the mask’s line-of-sight design errors, my model’s vision will not be clear, which makes me even worrier that it will not make her uncomfortable. In addition, I was very sensitive to human footsteps because I was in a public area, and I was worried that it would affect other people’s use of it when I was shooting. But I also want to say that apart from being nervous, I also felt excited, because this was my first portrait photography, or even my first formal shooting, so the whole process was very new to me, such as the different angles of portraits in photography, the influence of light and shadow, and the composition. And because it was the first time to shoot, I shot a lot of useless photos, which was a bit of a blow to confidence at first, but as I got used to the camera, I began to find the right way to shoot.
I chose the school library as the shooting location. It is located on the 6th floor in UC, distributed with bright red bookshelves and filled with different kinds of books. I chose it because, first of all, the bright red color of the bookshelf can create a strong contrast with my black and white mask. And then the book on the shelf has a great implication, it can be an extension of reality, even if we are just in this small closed room, our perception of things is not limited. This corresponds to my main idea of the mask. Where you are, how you are judged, will never determine who you really are. You have more than this little room.
I tried to capture a fearless state of self in my photos. The model is not looking straight ahead, she is looking into the distance, which means that she is not only in this room, her mind has gone further. She held a black book with the word “Airport” in prominent white lettering, corresponding to her distant thoughts. In the back, the black woolen yarn that means the road of life shuttles through different bookshelves, meaning different ideas, and also contrast with the different places in the bookcover. I felt that I had captured a sense of mystery hidden in daily life. I passed this red bookshelf every time when I went to the library. It was my daily life, but when I really started to take pictures, its meaning changed, it began to become mysterious and the atmosphere began to become dense.
I think storytelling and iteration from creative thinking came into play. I tried to dig a little deeper into the backstory in one photo, and at the same time, I kept changing angles until I was satisfied, and each photo in between was iterating and improving.