Project Statement - Isabela Emerick

My first Montage project was inspired in the city in which I lived in Brazil, Rio de Janeiro. For this project I wanted to portray how is a weekend in the most beautiful city and how the Cariocas (people who born in Rio de Janeiro) do on a sunny weekend.

The images used to portray the Carioca’s lifestyle are the photographers of the city and most are available online. After I defined the sequence, the photos show the beauty landscape and how people enjoy a sunny day in Rio, from dawn to dusk.

The ultimate goal of this project is to show the beauty of the city and happiness of the people who live there. After my viewers saw the video, I want them to be amazed by the city and wanted to go to Rio de Janeiro on their vacation.

Montage Statement

 

Statement: Montage

The images for this project were all chosen because of their similarity of visual aspects. For some it was color, for others it was the subject, and each was edited to relate and transition to the next. Because it's a subtle story in spite of being emotionally charged, I chose to use a muted color range with soft blues and yellows, using a darker blue effect on the images that were part of memories or dream sequences. I chose to represent it in painterly texture because I try to sympathize by putting myself in others' shoes, and I know that I would best deal with something of this magnitude through painting. And so the story is told the same way.

The sound was chosen after sampling several different bits of instrumental before I found one that was appropriate and assisted in narrating the story without taking over by causing the viewers to react through the rises and falls of the audio. The sound starts off sweet and melancholy, and progresses to tense, suspenseful crescendos as the woman, the protagonist, experiences a loss that ultimately leads her to take her own life.

                Although the experience of miscarriage isn't personal to me, it did happen to my aunt when I was a child. I remember her being devastated though I hadn't thought about it until I actually began on the project. Throughout the process, I began to think that the vague memories I have of her disappointment is probably what's caused me to develop such an aversion to pregnancy over the years. I realized that it has reached the point that my blood pressure elevates whenever the subject is approached. It me wonder about what kind of effect an event like that has on someone psychologically when they go through it first hand, which led me to create this montage as it stands now. It’s a heaviness that’s carried around forever.

traffic: a photo montage by esteban arturo

traffic from Esteban Arturo on Vimeo.

In my work, wether it is photography or video, I seek to arouse an emotion or feeling within the audience. It seems that a lot of art today has forgotten to do much of this, and relies more deeply in the "meaning" or "allusion" behind the work. Because of this, in TRAFFIC, I use sounds and momentum carried through each image to convey an environment, a situation, and a result.
   Exposition
            Climax
      Conclusion

Being the piece of the season, I wanted TRAFFIC to have some sort of representation of where I stand today. I was looking to create work that would depict relationships and the crash within it. The video itself starts of with some intensity created by the lighting and the sound behind the each image, but in an impromptu moment is interrupted by friction between the subjects. The audience feels the friction as the cuts between the images pick up speed, and the tempo of the actual montage heightens. The crash comes to a conclusion, the relationship is back to normal. The audience is looped back. It is once again the beginning. The traffic picks up again.

Project 1 Statement

    My montage inverts the meaning of the seasons, turning winter into a season of activity and youth, when it is usually symbolic of hibernation and death.  This isn’t to say that the other seasons portrayed are supposed to be depressing, they are beautiful in their own light, but much more introverted and more subtle than traditionally portrayed.  Summer, spring, and autumn seem uninhabited, while winter is bustling with birds and human activity.  These birds become a comforting pattern throughout the work, interacting with the scene and snowman.  The emphasis on time spent depicting winter in this work allows the viewer to project himself onto the snowman, and sympathize as it melts.  I am reminded of how temporary our own footprint in the world is, and I am humbled by nature’s ability to continue its cycle with or without me.  Nostalgia bubbles to the surface when I think of the urgency of time, and the time that has passed already that is only tangible through fading memories.  By narrating the montage, the piece becomes much more meditative, because it unites thought with image, and there is an ebb and flow to the work that resembles natural phenomenon, like rainfall.  Had I elected to use random sounds, the work would have felt less personal and less unified, since there wouldn’t be a voice guiding you through the piece.  Sounds may have assaulted or contradicted the photographs, or compromised the dynamic undercurrent that the human voice provides.  The human voice is a natural and raw instrument, which compliments the nature imagery.

Project One: Montage

Artist Statement

"You are unique. Just like everybody else."

For my project, I took this quote to heart, in the sense that I wanted to showcase that a smile is as unique in comparison to someone else's. Every person utilizes similar mechanisms to smile- a straight face, push back the mouth, raise cheeks; more commonly, we say "cheese," hence the title of my movie. 

I got the idea while putting together my picture albums to decorate the walls of my dorm. I realized that in everyone of my pictures, my smile was usually exactly the same. Then I continued to regarded the rest of my friends, and they're smiles as well seemed like a mirrored image, especially when you cover up the upper part of the face [nose, eyes]. I believe this is because of the notion that we "smile with our eyes," and without viewing them, we lose a lot of information about each person, and how they truly feel behind the smile. 

To create the movie, I took a single shot of me and 8 of my friends. Then I broke down the picture into individual shots of each person portrayed in the photo. I took away the background color, to add more harmony, and began to slowly play them to the beat of "The Blue Umbrella," an instrumental soundtrack to the Pixar short of the same name. The timing of the pictures are set to go along with the tempo of the song. Then, after a beat [to initial simply the start of a change in rhythm], I speed up the timing of the photos, to the point that they flash across the screen, increasing this speed after certain intervals. The loss of color in the background, and the lack of time to process the image, are both factors in trying to confuse the viewer and have he/she guessing which smile belongs to which person. I  also inserted pictures of my friends at different levels of zoom, in between the shots of just their smiles for confusion, as well as distraction- the switch from a photo having a lot of detail to one with less, catches the eye and teases it to start seeing things that aren't there. The speeding up in music also links to a sense of urgency in the procession- like I'm building up to something, only to find there's nothing special there. I had clear pictures at first but then I chose to have them a little more blurred, to further create the look of images flashing before you, and of the person's identity being that much more unknown.

This is truly a montage as much to my idea to that of my friends and our times together- when watching they said they couldn't help feeling sentimental, and I feel the music as well as the swiftness, and simplicity of the video add to that- I hope you smile when you watch it too :].

Project 1 - Montage

Project 1: Montage from Adreenah Wynn on Vimeo.

Artist Statement
In this video, I give my perspective of my hometown Apalachicola, Florida. This video is very personal. I let the viewer in to see my town through the eye of a local. This video is very informative and I hope the viewer leaves with a deeper understanding of why the locals feel so strongly about the nature, seafood, and history. The video is simple and in a documentary form. I used subtle techniques because I wanted to video to just flow and be more cohesive. I took the pictures myself because I wanted to show very specific view of Apalachicola. I think it would have lost the personal touch by just using Google images. I also edited them myself to make simple photoshop correction by sharpening the image and changing the brightness and contrast. The photo editing also made the work more cohesive.

I wrote and recorded the narrative myself. I wanted the words to help the viewer have a better understanding of my perspective of the town. While the photos work well on their own, I feel like the narrative and nature sounds help to pull the viewer in. I used ocean and bird noises to make the viewer feel like they were actually experiencing part of the town.

I tried too express the idea that things that don’t seem important like oyster shells and old houses are actually beautiful and necessary. By showing these things surrounded by sunsets, the river, and nature scenes it uses intellectual montage and helps the viewer see all the elements as something beautiful. Looking at the images by itself you would not get this effect. When the images are merged together and edited the same way the viewer understands that the different images are held on the same pedestal. We have the same appreciation for the nature as we do for the old houses and shells. The narrative helps to convey this idea. All the images are of different things but they all have the same subject matter. The meanings of the images are changed when arranged in this specific format.

I decided to name my work “No Place Like Home” because Apalachicola is unique. Also, the title fits because I would only feel this strongly about my hometown and no other place because there is “No Place Like Home.”

More information on intellectual montage can be found here.

Montage Project Idea

For the first project I'm going to inspire me in the city I live in Brazil, Rio de Janeiro. The images will portray Rio de Janeiro on sunny days, the beauty of its landscape and as 'the cariocas’ live these days. With this project, I wish to convey how is the day of the weekend, from sunrise to sunset. Also, this video shows the happiness and vitality of the Brazilian people and the result will make me feel less lack there of.

Project 1: Montage

    My montage project depicts my boyfriend’s hometown of Greencastle, Pennsylvania throughout the seasons, because every time I visit, I am confronted by an entirely new landscape.  (I am just your average Floridian unaccustomed to seasons that visually impact the landscape.)  This winter, I was introduced to snowman building, and I took it upon myself to document the snowman’s lifespan.  While the snowman is a playful sentiment to man’s interaction with nature, it also symbolizes the larger concept of the relentless progression of time.  The viewer can watch the snowman literally melt into a new, warmer season.  The colors used throughout the montage are symbolic of their representative season.  Winter, characterized as being barren and still while nature sleeps, is represented with a neutral color scheme that appears black and white at first glance, were it not for the subtle browns of the trees and bricks.  The only punch of color is a cardinal on a snow-flecked tree, foreshadowing the vibrant color scheme of the upcoming seasons.  The photographs from this spring and summer contain saturated greens, reds, and yellows to symbolize nature’s rebirth.  A decaying rust-orange leaf represents autumn, as the cycle gears for winter once more.  My montage can be played on loop and still be understood, perhaps no one could identify the beginning or the end after a while, to imitate the never-ending cycle of the seasons.  The snowman reminds us that we are temporary, and nature will run its course without pause.  The birds that appear throughout the winter scene seem to be watching over us, friendly and all knowing.  Yet, they disappear with the snowman, taking the privilege of time with their joyful spirits, to mirror how we often feel nostalgic when reflecting on the past.  While I was piecing these images together, my mind kept wandering to a line in a Robert Frost poem: “So dawn goes down to day, Nothing gold can stay.”

                            Rough sketches and mental notes... and my really nonphotogenic carpet

Project 1: Theme

For my montage project I chose to take images of my hometown, Apalachicola. I knew I wanted to take photos of Apalach so I just went out and took a lot of photos of the town. After looking at the result of all my photos I decided to make my focal point the nature in Apalach. Every single photo relates to nature in Apalach. During my video I want to use my own voice to narrate. I want to explain how I feel living in a tourist area. Most people come to this area to visit but Apalach is my home. We don’t have a backyard but we have the waterfront. I want to give my prospective on how it feels to come from such a small tourist town and I want this to not only represent how I feel, but how a majority of people in my community feels. I will open up the viewers so they can understand what how I feel. This goes right to the reading Ways of Seeing because I want a group of people to "see" the town from an Apalachicolians point of view. This is a very personal project.