Into the Light, Through the Hurt: A Junior Design Student Conceptual Project by Manon Laurent (2015)

In my photograph, I included a mirror and a shovel. The shovel is laying in front of the mirror, staring at it, in order to portray its uncertainty of breaking the mirror. Furthermore, I shot this picture on a gloomy day in order to set the mood. This is a darker subject- feeling happy through destroying something- so I waited for a day that was not going to provide too much light, but enough to depict a cold lighting. This picture is shot from a side angle because I wanted to give a broader idea of what was happening considering it is confusing with the reflection in the mirror.

While I was using photoshop, I learned a lot because I had never before used this program to such a great extent. Overall, I learned that photoshop has so many different aspects to it, all incredibly detailed, so you are really able to get a clear idea of what your edited picture will look like. For this piece, I played around with the contrast, brightness, shadows, and the amount of vignette. I wanted to go dark with this photo because the overall subject of my concept statement is dark. I turned down the brightness and increased the contrast to emphasize the darkness. Lastly, I added a neutral amount of vignette, to the point where you are able to see that it is there, however it is not the main focus of the photo. This picture really ties into my concept statement because of the object's metaphorical meanings. The shovel represents destroy whereas the mirror would be granting the experience of destruction when it is destroyed. Normally, these items would not be photographed together since they have nothing to do with each other, yet that is exactly the point, it makes the viewer question the photographers purpose, and it leaves a lot of room for interpretation.