Self-Portrait Diptych

A diptych is a portrayal of two separate images that have a specific meaning when they are put together. In design, we had to take photos of objects that we thought were good representations of the lines that we chose from our personal poem.

Artist's Statement

The moves were the same, but the mavericks were pressing new imprints into the polished rosewood floor

My fingers were dancers who were stuck doing the same choreography over and over

On the left side, I am trying to convey that a concept can be applied in many different mways and achieve a unique result every single time. In the photo, the concept is motion, the modes of transportation that left tracks on the dirt are the ways that the motion was applied, and the end result was many tracks going in different directions. On the right side, I am trying to convey how frustrating repetition can be. Anybody who has listened to the radio knows that the song Stairway to Heaven is overplayed on any classic rock station. It is also overplayed by amateur guitarists. Although the Led Zeppelin classic is arguably the most iconic song ever, its overuse in the media has stolen its charm and often leads to frustration among listeners. I used fire to signify frustration and a printout of the lyrics to the song because my father wasn’t pleased when I proposed that I shatter his record of the album it was on.

The left side of the diptych was taken with a higher aperture so that all of the tracks could be in focus. I also used 400 for my ISO because there was a good amount of light, but the parking lot was draped in the shadow of a giant pine tree, so it was sort of dim. The burning of the lyrics, however, took place right before nightfall. This meant that I had to use a slightly higher ISO than I did for the parking lot photo. The aperture that I used was also lower than the other photo because I wanted the words to the song to be in focus instead of the rocks and pavement in the background.