I am exploring the feeling of uncertainty through the experience of coming and going. I chose to use a scrambled Rubik’s Cube as well as a water system as the two objects for my photo. The toy has a lot of bright colors, that provide a nice focal point for the eye to be drawn to. The water system sort of provides a nook for the Rubik’s Cube to be nestled in to, which helps add unity to the photo and shows that the two of them are intertwined. The lighting was relatively dark, and the reason for this was to help give a slightly sinister underlying tone juxtaposing with the playful colors of the Rubik’s Cube. I also attempted to accentuate the shadows with the lighting and the angle, and it also skewed the main lines to make them a little bit more interesting. The shadows help with the juxtaposition and further helps establish tone. This proved ineffective, however, as the picture lost detail with the lack of light.
The Rubik’s Cube and water system are meant to represent two pieces of the concept statement, where the Rubik’s Cube shows uncertainty and confusion, and the water system shows the idea of coming and going. A Rubik’s Cube is a common puzzle toy, which is either scrambled with all of the colors mismatched or satisfyingly solved, so I wanted to leverage the ubiquitous nature of the toy to show confusion, as many people do not know how to solve this puzzle. The water pipes are meant to portray a cyclical theme, as water is constantly moving through the pipes. These both tie into my concept statement and my Ekphrastic Poem, titled “Familiars,” as that poem shows fear and chaos coming and going through people’s lives; I tied together the Rubik’s Cube and the waterway to connect these two concepts and give a similar message.
I used Photoshop mostly to add emphasis as well as to alter the photo to hide some of the issues I had while shooting. One of the most notable errors that I had was the low exposure, or dark quality to my photo. This swallowed some of the details of the photo and made it difficult on the eye, so I used the curves function in Photoshop to help brighten the photo. I also cropped the photo to get rid of some distracting, misused negative space, as it detracted from the focal point of the photo and made it more difficult to find. I also did a desaturation of everything in the photo except for the Rubik’s Cube. I did this by selecting the Rubik’s Cube, inverting the selection to take the background, and then desaturating that mask. This would help draw more attention to the vibrant colors of the toy and help guide the audience to the focal point, without being too extravagant about it. There is also a dark vignette around the photo to help frame the photo in a subtle fashion. The importance of most of these edits is to guide the eye to the Rubik’s Cube, and allow the audience to observe the picture from there outward.
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