The photographer I’ve chosen as inspiration for my photos is Jerry Uelsmann. I’ve chosen his work because he mostly does surrealism and that is the type of photography that I love to experiment with.
His work:
My work:
My goal for these photos was to capture my love for nature, photography, and photoshop. Jerry Uelsmann used beautiful photos of nature and combined them with other images that you normally would not think to do. His work inspired me to do my own surrealism photographs but put my own taste and touch into them. I kept them dark, gloomy, and mysterious. For each photo I wanted a sense of mystery, tranquility, and uniqueness. Photographing nature is how I started out doing photography. However, I never really do anything with my photographs besides show them to family or friends. I was glad I had the opportunity to do this type of work about something that I am so passionate about.
Each one of these photos has deep emotion attached to them. While some seem normal, others are quite bizarre and dark.
This photo is meant to be serene and calm. A bird sitting in a tree at night looking out at the water. But, at the same time, there is a sense of mystery to it. It’s dark and you can’t see much but the bird, the water, and the moon.For this photo I combined an image of water, plants, and an eye. I wanted to imitate Jerry’s work. While the water is calming, the eye in the middle feels like it’s trapped by the surrounding plants and the water. Feeling trapped is one of the emotions I tried to portray throughout these photos.While this photo is very calming, the trees in the back hover over the waterfall making it feel small and trapped. The reflection is not the same, and you can subtly see flowers peeking through the water like they are trying to emerge from the dark abyss.With this image, I wanted to subtly represent social distancing with the birds being far apart. Even though this image is the only one that does not consist of a dark background it still has an eerie feeling to it like something is wrong.This photo was meant to be more abstract. It was one of the only photos that has color to break up the black and white scheme. The reason I chose color for this photo was because it actually seemed “darker” with it. The moon in the middle is like a sign of hope, a beacon in the darkness that will guide us out of the dark times.This image is meant to show that nature is always watching what you do to the earth, so treat it right. Humanity isolating themselves from the earth is doing more good than bad to the planet. There is less pollution, animals aren’t afraid to come out of their isolation, the planet is healing.This image is meant to represent feeling trapped during isolation and quarantine. Many of us struggle with being stuck at home 24/7, I just want to share those emotions through that photo. It is the darkest out of all photos and has the most emotion with it. The sheet is meant to represent suffocation, being trapped, and loneliness. The hands are coming out grasping the sheet to take it off. The background is juxtaposing the image, all we want to do is go out and enjoy life the way it was but that is no longer possible.I wanted my last photo to be a representation of who I am. I have always had a strong connection with nature. And the first thing I did when I got a camera was I photographed birds and trees. However, the trees in this image are meant to make me feel trapped like they are guarding me from going outside. The birds are there as a sign of comfort, I will always have photography to comfort me. Even though I am not able to go out I can still photograph nature even if it’s through my window.
PhotoChronologies 