Flexible Paralysis: A Junior Self-Portrait Diptych by Rachel Michaels (2013)

For my first image, I took a picture of a glass of water throwing it’s contents of water and ice into the air, capturing the stop action moment. There is a line in my poem that I composed in English class that talks about feeling like you have no options or moves to make, similar to a state of paralysis; However, you really do have some viable options, they just don’t appear to be attractive ones. I wanted to capture this oxymoron in an image. Ice is clearly very rigid and paralyzed, but when displaced in water it becomes more fluid and flexible, tying back the meaning to my poem. In Photoshop, I manipulated the image by increasing the contrast between the background and the focus in the forefront. I intensified the warming and bronze-like colors in the background to initially juxtapose my other image. I decided to apply these manipulations to add a sombering effect to my piece.

My next image captures a lock and key. As I discussed earlier, my theme is flexible paralysis. I decided to photograph a lock and key because when the physical lock is locked and unopenable, it could be categorized as paralyzed. When one takes the key and opens it, it becomes more flexible than it was before. Contrastingly, I intensified the warming colors in the forefront of the photograph and set a black and white filter over the back. After that, I added a cooling filter over the black and white creating a blend of dark, neutral colors to juxtapose my other image.

My images not only juxtapose each other by means of complementary colors but they also contrast due to their linework and interpretations of my poem. In my diptych, I have many horizontal lines intersecting and crossing paths which is true for both photographs; The lines do not match up exactly which makes for a complex image. Also, both are interpretations of my poem that overlap yet could be taken in several different perspectives, making for an overall compounded yet eye-catching creation.