Artist Statement

In my portfolio, there are a variety of projects and Photoshops that we have worked on throughout the school year. Some of the major projects we worked on were our surrealism, our personal metaphor, and our graduation and senior night invitations. Also, there are some photos that we took while experimenting with the different settings of a camera such as ISO or Shutter Speed. There were also photos we had to take as a group such as the group collaboration, or balance. I feel that I did a good job with keeping my portfolio neat and organized. I posted mostly all of the work we did, except for maybe one or two things.
My favorite thing that I did in this class was adding effects to our pictures. The effects I liked most were the dreamy and cross-process effect. I liked these because it enhances our pictures; it makes them more interesting to look at. You are able to change the mood of the picture and this was good because since most of our pictures are taken here at school it’s hard to create a different mood for every picture. Over the course of this semester I learned a lot of new things that were helpful. For example, I learned about ISO, shutter speed, and aperture. These are all used to create light while making the picture more interesting, and not taking the original color away. I also learned about asymmetrical and symmetrical balance which also helps improve pictures. One last thing I learned was how to work with Photoshop. I came into this class not knowing anything, and although I didn’t learn everything about this program I am leaving knowing a lot more than I originally did and this helps me to learn more about it in the future.
What I feel I was most successful with was learning what a good and a bad picture look like. Before this class, I saw pictures and didn’t think much of them. Now though I know that there is more to a picture than what you see. There are the ideas behind it, the setting, the mood, and the tricks used to create the final product. I’ve realized that taking a picture isn’t just about pushing the snapshot button, if you want a picture that actually catches the eye there is a whole process involved. The thing I struggled with the most was being creative. The classes I’ve taken have always been your basic classes that don’t require much creativity so coming into this class was a new experience for me. At the beginning I was clueless on how to be creative, but as the year progressed it became a little easier.
I think in the future what I would want to improve is not limiting myself. I would have liked to put more enthusiasm into my projects, and have worked on them even if it was difficult. However, I did see improvement through the year. I improved in my Photoshop skills and ideas. I learned a lot in this class, and I’m glad that I took it. It helped me learned the beauty behind photography.