Deadpan and Precious Moments

At the end of my undergraduate career I was fortunate enough to have free reign over the classes I'd be taking for the semester and eagerly filled my schedule with art and media classes. One of those classes was an introductory photography course, where I learned about different photographic styles and quickly fell in love with the art of creatively capturing the world around me. 

One style/genre that stuck with me in particular (and was also the most difficult to execute when I first attempted it) is deadpan photography. According to the New York Film Academy, deadpan portraits "show people in their natural state, typically not showing any sort of emotion. These subjects are not posed, ... and seem completely honest... While not completely devoid of color, the colors tend to be mute." This genre of photography sounds a bit funny in relation to the scenario I decided to photograph for this assignment, which was a double date to pick apples at Honey Pot Hill Orchards. 

I didn't go into the assignment looking to do a deadpan series, but was inspired to incorporate some elements of it after seeing the overcast weather and noting how it changed the vibe of the farm as opposed to a brighter, sunnier day. I noticed that most of the shots I was taking had a bit of a duller, more somber feel to them despite me capturing a happy activity so I decided to kind of run with it. 

I actually began with the detail shots first and then moved out to the bigger picture. I did so because at first I couldn't help but notice all of the discarded apples on the ground that bruised, slightly rotting, and completely forgotten by the visitors of the farm. It made me a little sad, so I decided to give them a bit of a spotlight by featuring them in the shot that included an element of myself. 

                                                                                                          Detail shot including myself, 6" x 4.85"

Detail shot before and after, 6" x 8"

I felt like the apples really made for an appropriate detail shot because they were the most important detail/aspect of my visit to the farm! With this photo, I wanted to play around with the idea of balance and viewpoint to give the viewer a sense of participation in the activity. I also wanted to highlight and emphasize the apple itself in its natural state, and I felt this composition gave it a sort of glowing/buzzing energy that directs your focus to it. In post-production I decided to ramp up the saturation a bit in order to achieve that effect. 

Scene establishing shot, 12" x 9"

This shot is my personal favorite! As I was trying to capture a scene-establishing, wide-angle shot I noticed that my friends, the other couple, were fussing over the apples in the trees down the hill and was hit with a brief moment of inspiration. I shouted down at them to kiss right as I was adjusting the camera and was able to capture a really beautiful moment in the middle of a very gloomy-looking day. My main focus for this shot was to emphasize the sense of depth from where I was standing as well as to give a slight sense of leading lines down the orchard paths. I amplified the somber feel of the photo to bring about a more deadpan vibe by bringing up the contrast and lowering the brightness and exposure.

Medium distance shot, 6" x 8"

I then branched out from that wider scene to capture an individual lane in the orchard to provide a more specific sense of setting and place. The focal point for this shot was once again to emphasize the sense of depth and leading lines, and the post-production editing was also similar to the photo prior. 

Subject off-center shot, 6" x 8" and Subject centered shot, 6" x 4.5"

I decided to focus on my partner as the subject for my last two shots. I tried to follow the rule of thirds for the first photo and while I'm not exactly sure if I succeeded, I liked the composition overall because of its lush quality. I tried to play that up by emphasizing the green in the photo while retaining and overall sense of coolness. I think the second photo definitely categorizes my photo series as deadpan-inspired and not true deadpan, since the subject is posing and also displaying a lot of warm emotion! I tried to counter this a bit by making it gray scale to give it a more quiet, old school feel. 

Full Installation

As for my full installation, I wanted to do something more gallery-wall inspired (more in line with that gallery wall interior design trend that's been pretty popular lately than an actual gallery). I didn't want to darken the color palette any further so I avoided my foam board and opted for the whiteboard wall of the classroom instead. I also picked a spot right underneath the lightbulb to give it more of a gallery feel. I wanted the scene-establishing shot to be the central focus, with the other shots emerging around/framing it. I also wanted to keep photos that contained the same elements (like the apples, or my partner) near each other to create a since of continuity.