I need help for school...

plmuzikmaster · 02-13-2007, 07:04 PM

I am not sure where I am supposed to post this but I believe this section is the best location.

Anyways, I got my first official assignment:

Transcending the Object

For this assignment, you choose a subject to photograph and attempt to transcend subject. You may want to start by shooting your subject as an exact representation of what you think that subject is. If your subject is a rabbit and you think that rabbits signify warmth, cuddliness and innocence, then maybe you would start by photographing that rabbit in the warm glory of afternoon sun on plush white carpeting nibbling at a healthy, fresh looking carrot. Once you have done this, identified how you define your subject, you would need to figure out how to transcend these ideas of warmth, cuddliness, and innocence. Basically, how do you photograph your object without showing its warmth , cuddliness and innocence?

So, yeah... I am extremely confused as to what I should do... I even asked my classmates about what kind of ideas they came up with and that didn't help me either...

What do you guys think? Any help is greatly appreciated...

The weather is no help for the actual shooting thanks to lots of snow and no sun...

plmuzikmaster · 02-13-2007, 07:14 PM

I forgot to mention that I heard this assignment is a "test" to find out what my style is... I already know that I like working with a shallow depth of field, macro (but that lense isn't here, yet...) and still images...

dave sz · 02-13-2007, 08:00 PM

Do you have an assigned object or do you have to pick one? Maybe you can take a picture of a beer bottle with a very shallow DOf to show what efeects it has on you? Not usre if that would be correct for what you're trying to do.

clarenceclose · 02-13-2007, 10:40 PM

Sorry to say but whoever wrote these instructions reads like they were smoking a little too much weed.

Show the warm fuzzy bunny nibbling on a carrot.

Now show the warm fuzzy bunny broiled for dinner with a side of carrots.

xecutech · 02-13-2007, 10:59 PM

Originally Posted by clarenceclose

Sorry to say but whoever wrote these instructions reads like they were smoking a little too much weed.

Show the warm fuzzy bunny nibbling on a carrot.

Now show the warm fuzzy bunny broiled for dinner with a side of carrots.

bwaaaaa ha ha ha!!!!!

Ok, I needed that! Funny.

Rolly · 02-14-2007, 12:17 AM

Originally Posted by clarenceclose

Sorry to say but whoever wrote these instructions reads like they were smoking a little too much weed.

Show the warm fuzzy bunny nibbling on a carrot.

Now show the warm fuzzy bunny broiled for dinner with a side of carrots.

Or possibly, as they so often do in real life, physically tearing the beejeezus out of one another.

Unfortunately the "art/psycholgy departments" are overly fond of 1960's hippy/freudian jargon and tend to use it as a mark of intellectual superiority. Just as techno creeps/nerds like to demonstrate their "advanced" thinking by the use of specialist acronyms and technical jargon in everyday conversation. Management development departments in large businesses are replete with meaningless "gobbledigook" in concord with sales/advertising departments and bureaucracies in general.

'Twas ever thus.

Listen to the "street language" of any town or region and you'll find the same kind of verbal distortion intended to produce some kind of acceptability within an "exclusive" peer group.
Which is, of course, why I appealed in an earlier post for the users of this forum to use the simplest and most standardised form of the English language wherever possible.
That way everyone gets a 'fair go'.

xecutech · 02-14-2007, 12:28 AM

Originally Posted by Rolly

Or possibly, as they so often do in real life, physically tearing the beejeezus out of one another.

Unfortunately the "art/psycholgy departments" are overly fond of 1960's hippy/freudian jargon and tend to use it as a mark of intellectual superiority. Just as techno creeps/nerds like to demonstrate their "advanced" thinking by the use of specialist acronyms and technical jargon in everyday conversation. Management development departments in large businesses are replete with meaningless "gobbledigook" in concord with sales/advertising departments and bureaucracies in general.
'Twas ever thus. Listen to the "street language" of any town or region and you'll find the same kind of verbal distortion intended to produce some kind of acceptability within an "exclusive" peer group.
Which is, of course, why I appealed in an earlier post for the users of this forum to use the simplest and most standardised form of the English language wherever possible.
That way everyone gets a 'fair go'.

huh?! I seriously hope this is sarcasm!

plmuzikmaster · 02-14-2007, 01:25 AM

Originally Posted by dave sz

Do you have an assigned object or do you have to pick one? Maybe you can take a picture of a beer bottle with a very shallow DOf to show what efeects it has on you? Not usre if that would be correct for what you're trying to do.

I get to pick any object... I was talking to another student today and they said something like, the object should describe more things than the obvious... his example was a rose... a rose in someone's hands is typical but a rose laying on a bench can mean many things and that starts to generate questions about it... i'm still confused... especially by Rolly's post...

aabram · 02-14-2007, 02:59 AM

Oh boy.
I'm glad I finished school without having to transcend bunnies.

If I understand correctly they want you to photograph things without their usual connotations. We all know that puppy pics must be taken on soft couch, green grass or at least playing with each other in direct sunlight. They're proabably looking for pics where the object is not in their usual expected surroundings, or is depicted so that the picture conveys different meaning than you'd exepect from given subject.

So instead of taking a picture of beer bottle with beer in it, take a picture of a beer bottle with water and flowers in it, being placed on window-sill side to side with a basket of cookies. Or whatever.

But it's quite possible that I don't understand the assignement in it's full glory.

PS - substitute beer bottle with Coke or something, if you think that'd be more appropriate. I have no idea what is considered "correct" nowadays.

Simon · 02-14-2007, 04:20 AM

If I were doing it I think I would try to turn a disadvantage into an advantage. You say there is a lot of snow around where you are at the moment, so think of something you wouldn't usually see in the snow (and which impies warmth)...

Photograph an easy chair in your house and then move it out into the snow and take it again... just a thought, I am sure you can think of better ideas... someone in a swimming costume, a cool iced drink...

Should we really be doing your assignment for you?

Simon

plmuzikmaster · 02-14-2007, 08:30 AM

Originally Posted by Simon

Should we really be doing your assignment for you?

Nope, you aren't doing it for me, I'm just trying to get ideas of how to interpret it... I think I will be using aabram's interpretation because it kind of makes sense to me... Now I have to find an object, shoot it (on 4!!! rolls of film), develop it, make contact sheets and enlarge the 2 best pics...

Alvin · 02-14-2007, 10:47 AM

So this is not an photographic assignment, this is an art assignment. Hmmm.

Read this thing twice. One idea that came to mind:

A concert pianist (tuxedo and all), on a stage, with the spotlight on him, but he's typing on a computer.

I find this assignment twisted in a way. You can do too many things with it.

dave sz · 02-14-2007, 11:28 AM

Originally Posted by plmuzikmaster

I get to pick any object... I was talking to another student today and they said something like, the object should describe more things than the obvious... his example was a rose... a rose in someone's hands is typical but a rose laying on a bench can mean many things and that starts to generate questions about it... i'm still confused... especially by Rolly's post...

buy a toy gun, that looks real-ish, and throw it in teh dirt or among some ruble somewhere...

carpents · 02-14-2007, 11:52 AM

Perhaps I did the opposite of the example by starting with something banal and turning it into something different...here:
Objective

plmuzikmaster · 02-14-2007, 07:02 PM

Originally Posted by Alvin

So this is not an photographic assignment, this is an art assignment. Hmmm.

Read this thing twice. One idea that came to mind:

A concert pianist (tuxedo and all), on a stage, with the spotlight on him, but he's typing on a computer.

I find this assignment twisted in a way. You can do too many things with it.

ok, now i see it, but it has to be an object (even though the example is an animal for some reason...)