#it wouldnt let me insert breaks to divide the paragraphs

[ondigitalphotography-blog1]

FINAL PROJECT, FIRST IMAGES

This group of images is quite different from what I had originally thought this project would look like, though it keeps to the initial idea in a couple of key ways. My initial idea was to overlay images of the body (I was envisioning the body/bodies of a woman/women) with text that addressed and drew critical attention to the power dynamics created, enforced, and deconstructed by, specifically, the terms "girl," "woman," and "female." The images I have come up with at this point are related to my original idea and get at the same concept in a different way. With the image/text amalgams I have created here, I am attempting to draw attention to a few different issues: power dynamics between rapists and their victims, power dynamics between photographers and their models, and the magnitude of violence that slurs can hold./// The juxtaposition of the images of a young boy in positions of vulnerability and the text that is meant to represent things that he, as an adult, will or might say in acts of violence/rape is meant to jar viewers and call attention to the violence in our society that entirely too often enables/promotes the transformation of children into power-hungry rapists and domestic abusers. I hope that the viewer gets the sense that the quotes are things that the figure will eventually say to someone else and not things that will or have been said to him. With that interpretation the images do not have as great of an impact./// The first two images (and perhaps the third) are working best, I think, because of the stark backgrounds. I don't like the completely dark background of the final image; that image feels too much like a PSA poster, which isn't necessarily what I'm going for. I think the obscurity of the face is effective, in that it allows the viewers to project people from their lives onto the body of the figure and to imagine people they love in the victim's and the abuser's position. Also, I'm not sure about creating a set of twenty or so images of this very nature: it seems like the theme could get tired. I am thinking of perhaps creating subgroups within my final portfolio of text/image amalgams that each address my stated theme in a different way.