Subjective / objective

Objective photo of the jar

Title: Talk

I am a strong proponent of the freedom of speech. We are entitled to opinions but not many people use it. People pretend they don't have opinions although they do. They don't speak up when in fact, there are so many things they want to say. The results can be devastating. People get depressed, autocratic leaders rule and unfair things happened to so many people.

Through this photo, I want to encourage people to speak up and talk rather than bottle their words and emotions up. The jar is full of words so why do we have to keep them inside?                                

 

Subjective photo:
     Playing with the mood using lighting and shadow.

The inspiration of this image is John Mayer's Say.

You'd better know that in the end  Its better to say too much         Then never say what you need to say again

The song talks about how we should just put words in quotations rather than worrying about other trivial things. He called our pride as wasted honor which I agree. In practice, it is definitely not an easy thing to do. But again, when I listened to this song, somehow I got an extra boost of power to say what I should and must say.

Composition: the first image is an objective photo of the jar where the jar doesn't look that interesting. The intention is to create a flat image with no artistic aspect attached to it. The second image is where I changed the lighting slightly to get a bit more of a shadow. I hope to give the jar a mysterious appeal. I want people to be more interested about what's inside the jar.

The third image is where I scattered the scrabble tiles and arranged them so that it looked like someone just blurts out. The words are in a mess (including the "a" in the word "talk") and the jar is wide opened. It means that we do not have to compose a Shakespearean sentence in our heads before we speak up. Words do not have to be sophisticated and perfect. Messy can also be beautiful. What's important is we talk and communicate our ideas. That is why the word "talk" is spelled out clearly in the picture and it is  sharpest compared to all.

The plastic rack was intentionally put above the lid to give the illusion that we're unloading the words out of the jar. I got the idea from big trucks where you have a plank to help unload what's inside the trucks. The rack creates a line towards the jar so we can still vaguely see the jar. At the same time, the jar doesn't take away the focus because it is in the background. Minimum depth of field is utilized to fulfill this task.