Freestyle Academy proudly presents

Broken Lights: A Senior Surreal Photo by Juan Nava (2014)

My surrealist image consist of a strange light composed of a street lamp and a match. There is a scaled hand reaching into the picture in an attempt to flick the light switch on the morphing object. The composition was mainly created in Photoshop. The lamp post and match were done with HDR photography to strengthen the contrast between darks and lights and to give the objects large amounts of detail. I used a texture mapping technique to give the perception that the hand is made out of scales (It was actually a picture of my dog's paw up close). Lastly, the background picture is a macro picture of a videogame cover where I manipulated the curves of the photo to only show blue.

The meaning of the picture is that I am happier when I don't think. The light bulb represents thought, whereas the match represents a lack of happiness. The light switch stays on, to show that the brain is on while the match has no flame, to show my lethargy. The hand has scales, like a reptile, to represent being tough-skinned. The triadic color scheme conveys simplicity and to emphasize the contrast between the light of the lamp post and and the match's light.
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