Desperation While Listening to Music: A Junior Design Student Conceptual Project by Isabel Martynenko (2015)

Whenever one goes through the downfall of desperation, there is absolutely no hope to reach out to. There is nothing to look up to and they are trapped at the bottom of this miserable pit. There is one thing that connects everybody and shines through any situation to anyone. Music is the key. It brings out either the best or worst in people by delivering a message or guidance in certain situations. In this case, it is to guide an individual out of the cycle of hopelessness. For example, think of one light source in a dark environment. That light is the only hope to get out of that darkness someone is trapped in. most of the background is just the sky, which was done intentionally, and that provides the never ending illusion of the street going off the shot to give that eerie vibe of loneliness. The worm's eye view angle was intended to bring the viewer to the same level of the sufferer in this type of situation, weak and having no ability to pick themselves up.

To intensify the meaning behind the photograph, I used Photoshop to enhance specific details of this piece to enhance the message. On a background copy layer, I carefully used the pen tool to create the selection before turning that outline into a path of marching ants. I used this tool on the sign and the two light sources in the scene. The selection on the sign was for me to get rid of the text to symbolize the lost feeling in my conceptual statement. I made a selection on the moon in this shot to intensify its brightness and show its powerful luminosity shining on the entirety of the dark street. When I was taking this shot late at night, I made sure to have my camera's ISO set to a lower number for as little noise as possible and a faster shutter speed to avoid blur. These elements definitely helped the Photoshop raw process for my editing procedure.