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Uncertainty: A Senior Listener Lyric Photographic Diptych by Simone Clements Leedeman (2018)

My lyrical essay explores the experience of a Vietnam veteran and the emotions a soldier goes through when fighting for a war that is the source of a large amount of criticism. The quote from my lyrical essay I chose to emphasize in this piece is “you didn’t agree with this war. You were only here because you were drafted.” This quote stood out to me because it helps to describe a point of view from a veteran that is not often represented.

To take this photo, I used a telephoto lens to practice street photography and capture images of people from a distance, while they are in a relaxed and natural state. The photo I chose for this piece was taken at a nearby park, as a man was walking toward a shadowy line of trees. This helped to represent the feeling of walking into the unknown, as my interview subject felt when entering the war.

To edit this photo, I used Adobe Photoshop to trace the subject which allowed me to edit just the person separate from the background. I then used a gradient map to to colorize and add emphasis to the person. In this process, I decided to use blue and a hint of green to bring out the uncertainty and fear the subject felt when he was drafted. Then, I edited the color of the background to a darker, almost black and white to bring out the darkness of the shadows which represent the “unknown”. I then used the selection of the subject to create an outline which I used to fit the white text in. In order to fill the space effectively, I stretched the text and added emphasis to different parts of the quote such as the word “you”, “agree” and “here”. Related website
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