A Grey Area is not a Restricted Area. It my be entered freely, the only condition being that one know one is free do to so. There is of course a line which must be crossed, but one that is not thin, like a tape or ribbon. Its breadth, or distance is more an agreement, a complicity, more unspeakable than unspoken. It is not a physical line, one that may be walked across, or through, or stepped over. It is sensed rather than seen, the primary sensation which evidences the line – and which keeps most out – being fear. At best it is climbed through or crawled under on all fours. It is often accompanied by a bad smell. It is a psychological line which has become a distance, but one that is still somehow flattened to a plane of sorts – a field (force field) which repels at a distance beyond the visible.
--Becky Beasley, writing about Danny Treacy's photographs
My favourite photo from Latham's 'The Parliament Of Owls' photo book is the photo shown on the left. I really like this image because it is a portrait however, your attention isn't necessarily on the person within the portrait like it normally is when looking at portraits. With the portrait most peoples attention would be drawn to the top of the photo where all the money is on the ceiling as it is very out of the ordinary and a lot of people would never have seen anything like it before. However, peoples attention could also be focused on the board just below the money on the celeing as its the brightest colour in the picture. This is creating a grey area as peoples attention could be drawn to many different things when first looking at the picture. I also really like the picture as the person isn't in the centre of the image, which is an underlining portraiture rule but they are more towards the right of the picture. This is further creating a grey area within the photograph as this isn't typical of most portraits. As well as this there are many different things in the background of the photograph again drawing attention away from the person in the portrait and more to the background, this could make the audience think that this could be representing more about the life of the person and reflecting how they feel in their real life. It could also be representing how people now care less about other people and more about concrete objects in everyday life.
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At first for my final outcome/ exhibition I wanted the focus to be on the grey area around people and the fact that we rarely ever truly know someone. I would have put the focus on this by using photos where at first the people in them aren't truly recognisable as the photos would have either been slightly blurred, the people were covering their faces or had their backs to the camera. I would then have further adapted the images in photoshop by using colours over the photos further making the subject in the images more unrecognisable, like the image on the left.
The photos below are the photos that I originally wanted to use, as I thought that they represented the 'grey area' with people quite well. I edited the photos in photo shop, and had a few different edits of the different photos, using different colours and overlaying the images together. |