Connecting Essay 4

Photo I found on the Internet:

My Photo: 

The photo from the internet is black and white, and shows a man holding on to a set of bars really tightly, whilst looking through them. This photo is quite dark, however the man's hands are the brightest part in the picture so we focus on them. As the man is behind the bars, he is blurred and dark, whereas his hands are gripping onto the bars and therefore, appear bigger than they actually are. This photo portrays the feelings of being trapped, either physically or mentally. As we can see the man is clenching his fists, and in the background he is completely concentrated on the bars, we can tell he is frustrated. 

In my photo, I wanted to display the feelings of giving up and being lost. For this image, I brought my model to a bridge which is above a train station. I then asked my model at the top of the bridge to stand near the edge and hold on to the barriers. To take this shot in particular, I angled my camera downwards, so that the model's hands were shown as well as what was beneath the bridge. This photo creates depressing and hopeless emotions due to the fact that the person in the image is so close to the edge of an extremely high bridge. This photo is quite dark due to shadows, however, the train tracks are completely lit up, and despite being slightly blurred due to being in the background, we focus on the train tracks. 

These photos link because they express the feelings of being trapped, hopeless and frustrated. In the first image, the model is desperately trying to become free. Whereas in the second image, the model has given up and is accepting their fate. Both photos are dark and upsetting because we feel sorry for the two people in them. The bars in both images could be seen as a metaphor for mental illness, which is what I intended for my image initially. As I wanted to portray the feelings of losing yourself to the point where you don't want to be you anymore. The bars resemble a step in life, that both models need to take in order to be free.