Comfort Shot: A Senior Black + White High Dynamic Range Diptych by Hannah Craford (2016)

For this particular image I wanted the audience to get an insight into the mind of someone with an addiction. On one side of the diptych you have the image of a stuffed bunny rabbit. It sits alone in the dark and leaves can be seen behind it. I wanted it to represent the comfort and familiarity that one seeks when they are addicted to something. At a certain point in addiction you reach for whatever you are addicted to in order to make yourself stop hurting. The rabbit represent comfort, while the leaves behind it represent being left out in the cold. When one is addicted they often feel alone and isolate, much like a stuffed animal left outside overnight. The second image in the diptych is a photo of an espresso shot glass tipped over with pills spilling out onto a black cracked pavement. I wanted to juxtapose the harsh contrast between the white pills and the black pavement with the softness of the rabbit. While addiction is about getting that fix and not being able to keep yourself from that one thing that makes you feel good, there is also the harsh side of what you are addicted to. In this case the shot glass and pills represent the addiction, while the deep black cracked pavement represents the pain and sorrow which makes the addiction so visible.

These two particular images were created by using a method of photography called High Dynamic Range or HDR. In this process you take the same picture from different exposures in order to get a fuller range of details. We then imported the images into Photoshop and merged them using a special feature in Photoshop. Through editing the exposure, contrast, and highlights you are able to get a much more detailed image. All together I wanted the piece to show the struggle people face when dealing with addiction, on one side there is the pull of comfort and on the other the harsh and unforgiving addiction itself.