Innocent: I tried to capture an image without much forethought. I didn’t mind how the setting was framed, and I didn’t retake the photo so as to maximize the likelihood that a good image was taken. I just took my camera out and snapped a picture. I
think that makes my picture “innocent” because it didn’t require any additional effort, apart from using my natural eye as a sort of preemptive viewfinder. I think I mostly succeeded; while the image is an attractive one, more attractive than I initially anticipated, it lacks much beyond surface-level appeal.
Constructed: I definitely tried to be more intentional with my framing. I wanted to capture the dichromatic contrast that existed on the school's campus—between the tree’s greenery and the red brick of the dormitories, something I failed to do in the initial
image. I also liked the idea of the foreground being heavily dominated by concrete, and the background being more natural. A lot of time was spent moving the camera around before the image was taken, and making sure that the aspects within the piece fit the narrative I was seeing with my mind’s eye. I enjoyed entrapping the tree between two different man-made structures, the
parking lot and the dorms.
Argument I liked the idea of having a figure in the frame moving away from the greenery and towards the bleaker, albeit not colorless, brick buildings. The figure in this case is clearly a student, but can be viewed as a traveler of some sort (if one wishes to be creative).She’s depicted as wearing a backpack and sweatpants and walking with a stride that implies haste. The inclusion of this figure demonstrates a few potential arguments, some more optimistic than others. One which I especially enjoy, and which ties in nicely with some of the topics in this class and the one last semester, is this idea of moving away from an education by nature to an education by society (maybe, maybe not); the character is seen abandoning the abstract greenery for the rigid right-angles of the brick dorms. I think this is especially apparent if you zoom-in on the space above the figure— the spot of sky half dominated by shapeless tree branches and half dominated by the consistent layers of the various buildings. / constructed / argument