Friday, October 12, 2012

Photo Essay. Rachel Slee


MAS110. Assessment 2. Photo Essay.
Rachel Slee-42874653.
Stairs.









The idea of the everyday aesthetic refers to photography that has blurred the line between amateur and professional photography, and in the digital age the ability to form interest on images that are experienced in the everyday. Individuals show interest through sites such as Flickr, in looking at objects or things they would have seen on a regular basis, through the eye or lens of another. Murray reflects on the idea that the everyday aesthetic gives interest to and, “privileges the small, the mundane, the urban, and the industrial.” This reveals that the everyday aesthetic is not focused on extravagant things, but instead on making ordinary things extravagant. In keeping with the idea of everyday aesthetic, as an amateur photographer I sort to capture some form of excitement in something that everyone witnessed and even used in their day-to-day life, but really paid little attention to. This is why Stairs are the main focus of this photo essay. It goes heavily unnoticed the beauty that lies in such simple objects and the immense number of variations in stairs that can be found. The design, material, shapes and surroundings of a set of stairs can change the image or feel drastically and these were the difference that I wished to highlight and emphasise.

Through the images being taken from several different angles, it highlights the different angle we use stairs at, as they or we are not always going in the same direction. Panning shots helps to emphasise the different textures found in stairs as well as accentuate some of the obvious structural differences. Some images show clearly the surroundings of the stairs, (i.e fences, plants etc.) helping to reveal how they can sometimes go unnoticed behind these surroundings and yet sometimes these other things can really bring out the uniqueness and interest in the general ‘ordinary’ of stairs.

References:

Murray, S. (2008) “Digital Images, Photo-Sharing, and Our Shifting Notions of Everyday Aesthetics”, Journal of Visual Culture, 7: 147. 

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