Taryn Wall: A Narrative Character Portrait by Madisen Stitt (2015)

Taryn Wall is your typical stressed out senior in high school. She is overwhelmed by the stress of college applications and fears that she will not get accepted into any college, regardless of her perfect grades. At the time the photograph was captured Taryn was startled by the GPA requirements of a college brochure she was reading. Reading this brochure made Taryn feel nervous, dreading that she would not be a qualified applicant at one of the colleges she was applying to.

To capture this shot I focused on the rule of thirds and placed my model into the left third of the photograph, leaving space for the brochure in the second third of the photo. I dressed my model in preppy, nonoffensive clothing. The collared blouse, sweater, and thick white headband show that Taryn is very focused on her schoolwork and will not let even minor distractions, like disorderly clothing, stand in her way of accomplishing her goals. Unfortunately, I dressed my model in a dark sweater with a dark background which caused her to get a little lost in the picture. Although, I fixed this problem by brightening the photo and adding a vignette to the outside edges in Adobe Photoshop.