Assignment 1

            I started to enjoy photography when I was an intern at The Chronicle Telegram in Elyria, Ohio. My job entailed a little bit of everything, from writing news stories to taking pictures of local events. Therefore, my inspiration came from unique individuals who I usually did not know prior to taking their photo. I would conduct phone interviews to get to know them a little bit. Oftentimes, once we met to take pictures for any given article, I would pose the subject according to how he or she portrayed him or herself on the phone. This internship took place during the summer of 2012. While I thoroughly enjoyed my photography work at the newspaper, I would like to expand my horizons a bit. Since I usually focused on taking pictures of people, I would like to venture into the realm of still life and nature-oriented photography. I would also like to edit my photos to make them look larger than life, as opposed to completely realistic. With my work, I aim to take the ordinary and make it remarkable. This is why my first few images have been quite colorful and moody despite having a seemingly mundane subject. I intend to continue this trend, perhaps by working my way through the color wheel week by week.

            Along these lines, my inspiration comes from an artist from Maryland named Eric Hoar. I can find but a single image of his to take inspiration from, but, nonetheless, this image is intriguing to me. It is called "Still Life with Ginger Ale and Lemon,” and, as Eric states, he, “took this picture of [his] beverage with an incandescent table lamp behind it. [He] positioned a blue LCD flashlight so it would also backlight the glass. [He] adjusted the brightness and contrast to bring out the colors and used Photoshop Elements to eliminate the lampshade behind the glass” (Johnson). In a way, I am thankful that I am only able to find one photograph by this man. This leaves me the room to expand upon this work without confounding myself creatively. I admire this photo because it stimulates in me a creative and optimistic view of the world. I look at this simple photo of a glass of ginger ale and some fruit, and don’t just see something to quench my thirst, but rather a gateway into a world of beauty and wonder. I see fire and ice, light and dark, solid and liquid, and I am able to see how such contrasting visuals work so well together. It ignites a creative streak within me that aims to similarly find and highlight the seemingly dull things that surround us every day.