Loneliness Through Loss: A Junior Design Student Conceptual Project by Megan Yama (2015)

I am exploring the feeling of loneliness over loss. I decided to make a fancy dinner scene by using candles that had a nice reflection on the plate. I also put some flowers in to add to the elegance. The point of view was the empty seat across from the viewer signifying they have lost a partner. I made the lighting minimal because I wanted to portray the loneliness of the one man dinner they was having. I also made sure that there was one of everything. One plate, one set of utensils and one wine glass.

In Photoshop I put a vignette that is much darker than what I usually put to emphasize the loneliness and by making the edges darker it focused on the chair he was looking at. I also had a giant white beam in my photo from the window behind it. I used the pen tool that I struggled with a lot and I finally got the hang of it. I didn't quite know how to make this pole disappear completely so I used the ink dropper and copied the background color and colored it in. I am sure there is a much better way of doing this that I have yet to learn. I also put a subtle filter on the chair so you can see a difference in the entire photo. Usually you spend a fancy dinner with someone special and in this case he was planning to have a dinner with with his partner but his beloved one lost their life and he is looking at the empty seat. The empty seat creates a sense of loss because the partner isn't there. The wine, candle, and the flowers give a hint of the fanciness. The darkness behind the chair add to the loneliness because it seems like a dark never-ending void of loneliness.