noesheen---buksh

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Week 12 - Final Deliverables

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Week 12 - Final Manipulation

These are my final manipulations. I had gotten so into the working process that I had forgotten to take progress screenshots.

Like a Bad Marriage

So with this image, I had written out my script, just like how Duane Michals does his, on a piece of paper. I then took a scan of the image on my phone and airdropped it to myself. From there, I placed the image within Photoshop and had to learn how to extract the text from the image without the paper in it. I had watched a YouTube video and got kind of confused halfway through, but it worked! It took an incredibly long time. After I placed the text into the original image, it was too small and no matter how much I enlarged it, it cut off on one side or it was overlapping the image. So I created a new file in Photoshop where I had taken the frame of this image and placed the text on top of it, enlarging it till I was happy with how big it was. Then I cropped out the section and placed it onto the real image. I did this several times, with each section of text, so that they could all fit on the top frame in a good size.

The Weight of Debt

So for this image, I had to tidy up some sections where you could still see where I took the image from. For example, the space between her fingers still had the original background, so I went in and erased it all out. I then went on to create the text seen on the bottom right paper. I used the arch effect in Photoshop for the texts and manipulated it till it matched the curves of the paper. I took the body of the text from my Tumblr blog, which states some research based on student debt. The first time I had done this, I placed all the text into one text box and warped it, which failed as the paper curved in different directions in different places. The second attempt, I separated the texts per paragraph and placed them into their own textbox, then warped them. This worked out much better. After I had done that, I erased the part that wouldn't be visible due to the paper folding forward, and realistically, it would cover that part of the text. I then lowered the opacity of the text so it looked more subtle.

Sitting in Despair

So for this image, I had taken the feedback that was given and applied it. I changed the opacity of the figures in the back a little higher so they weren't absorbed by the darkness. I also changed the overall hue to be blue and orange. I chose these colours as they are complementary colours to each other, as well as in all the other images I have made, they are either shades of blue or orange hidden within them. They also pop out of the image, catching attention much more. I also changed the colour of the chair to red, matching the student's tie in all the images. This red change also gives it a much more popping out in the image. I made the overall image slightly less dark, and made the student sitting just slightly brighter.

Puppet to Student Debt

So for this image, I created shadows like I mentioned earlier, to make the doll more visually dominant. I also just did clean-ups, where there were little parts that showed the original background. The string/rope used was actually a computer charging cable. With them, I had just increased the brightness so that they would stand out in the overall image.

Overall, I am very pleased with how all my photos have come out and how the manipulation worked out. I am very proud of myself for creating this visually creative image and can't stop showing it to everyone. All of my classmates also found them so funny and accurately described how they felt about their student debts. So I would think it is safe to assume that this campaign accomplished what I wanted it to. My model also could not stop laughing at how she looked in the images, and is very pleased with how they turned out.

[noesheen---buksh]

Week 12 - Finalised Reflective Statement

For this assignment, my photographic practice was influenced by the Trouble in Paradise exhibition at AUT, pushing me to create own my campaign with this theme in mind. I have always desired to become an artist, to study in a redeemed higher education institution and to be able to learn, furthering my practice. The very concept of being able to come to a university and study was a paradise, however, the tremendous tuition fees to go to a university made me question if it is even worth it, becoming the very problem in my paradise.

My campaign aims to bring attention to how we are all puppets to student debt. Student debt has been an ongoing issue for many people of all ages, all over the world, even through different periods of time. An article by Harvard Law School had a detailed report that shows a 169% increase in college costs from 1980 to 2020[1]. Alongside it increasing over the years, it also affects people's overall mental health. A CNBC article which was published in an American context had a survey of readers which had said that 53% of high-debt student loan borrowers had experienced depression, nine in ten borrowers had experienced huge levels of anxiety and one in fifteen burrowers had considered suicide, all due to their student loans[2]. Statistics found on the IRD website had shown that, the total number of borrowers had decreased 3.8% from December 2023 to December 2024[3]. Because of all these issues surrounding the cost of universities, people are missing the opportunity to be able to further their studies at all.

The objective of my campaign is to create a series of humour-manipulated conceptual images to capture the stress and dread centered around having student loans. By using humour within my imagery, it can bring to light the trouble within my paradise and can create more engagement. The idea of using humor instead of creating dark gritty imagery came from another photographic campaign. The Incredible, Rage-Inducing Inside Story of America’s Student Debt Machine, written by Ryann Liebenthal. It is an online journalistic magazine for Mother Jones, an American website, published in September/October 2018[4].  The photographs from this campaign were taken by Zach Gross, who is a portrait photographer, who incorporates his subject’s interior lives alongside their public identities. The imagery within this campaign was dark and gritty as the target audience for it were adults with federal loans, that they had gotten from attending university for their bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Now, since I am much younger than the intended target audience, the imagery wasn’t as impactful, and I contemplated how to portray this issue in a way that was impactful to my generation. The answer was by using humour, the reason for this is that I had conversations with other students about how they feel towards their student debt and often they said very funny remarks towards them, so making the series more light-hearted and funnier would work better with my target audience of university students who can feel "seen" by this project. As well as the education system so that they can see the turmoil student loans cause the students.

Duane Michals has been a significant influence on my work in this campaign. Michals is an American photographer best known for his photo sequences, using text to evoke emotion. Alongside that, he uses dark humour and double exposure in imagery as well. His usage of manipulations and use of dark humour helped push my imagery further, inspiring me to make it my own.

The methods used for this campaign were heavy manipulation. I used a model that was a classmate of mine who had given me her permission to photograph her and was aware and okay with the way I had planned to portray her. I combined and transformed the images of the model, a wooden doll, and other props to create humorous situations that were inspired by metaphors relating to student debt, such as comparing student debt to a bad marriage, physically weighing you down and being controlled by it like a puppet. By layering multiple images on each other and changing the contrast of the imagery and colour grading I created light-hearted photos. In all the photos I had chosen to keep the background rather simple to not take attention away from the focal point.

This campaign would be displayed in gallery spaces and websites such as Gagosian. The imagery could also be used within contemporary magazines that talk about the effects of student loans, pushing the situations towards the education system. It would also be displayed on large billboards and sidewalk posters to capture the attention of passersby. These would be placed in and around university to allow the students to pause of a moment to look at the imagery and have a laugh, sharing it further on social media.

One of the biggest challenges I had within this project was taking the actual imagery. I had planned all my shots and knew exactly how to manipulate them, however finding a model that would work with my concept was rather difficult. People that I had asked either did not want their image taken or did not want to be portrayed in that manner which is fine.

I have enjoyed this brief and am incredibly satisfied with the outcome of my campaign. The brief last year for this minor class was centered around manipulation, which I had a fond interest in. That inspired me to keep with the same technical style. I refined my photo manipulation skills further within this brief, and it allowed me to fully research the effects of student loans. Hopefully, soon, the outstanding costs of being able to attend university, and furthering our education will not make us puppets to our student debts.

[1] “The Practice: Debt Takes a Toll,” Center of the Legal Profession Harvard Law School, October 2023, https://clp.law.harvard.edu/knowledge-hub/magazine/issues/student-debt/debt-takes-a-toll/.  

[2] Elizabeth Gravier, “Remind yourself of ‘what makes you happy’: Bloggers shares her advice about battling debt and depression,” CNBC, February 2025, https://www.cnbc.com/select/debt-and-mental-health/.  

[3] “Statistics on student loan borrowers,” Inland Revenue, March 2025, https://www.ird.govt.nz/about-us/tax-statistics/statistics-on-the-student-loan-scheme/statistics-on-student-loan-borrowers.  

[4] Ryann Liebenthal, “The Incredible, Rage-Inducing Inside Story of America’s Student Debt Machine,” Mother Jones, October 2018, https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/08/debt-student-loan-forgiveness-betsy-devos-education-department-fedloan/.  

[noesheen---buksh]

Week 12 - In Class Presentation

The in-class presentation had gone well, and I was very pleased with my work thus far. Within class, I had received feedback from Harrison, he had said that for the chair image, maybe change the colour of the chair itself to red as well as get a more dramatic contrast for the chair image, and maybe make the figures in the chair image different hues of colours, with different contrast. He also said to make the texts within that image snap to the sides. Natalie had also said that she liked how I scattered the title as she first read 'Stop Debt', which got her attention, then her eyes had to read across the whole set to see the student. I found that incredibly helpful and will make all these changes, as well as finish up my editing.

[noesheen---buksh]

Week 11 - In Class Activities

I was unable to attend class during the peer reviews, so I did them today. Zoe reviewed my work, since most of my manipulations are not fully finished, most of the feedback is to finish my own manipulations. She talked about how my concept is evident through my image, especially since she knows my concept in depth.

[noesheen---buksh]

Week 10 - Draft Deliverables

Here are my draft deliverables. My campaign would be displayed on billboards, sidewalk posters, in gallery spaces and magazine covers. I had decided that the image of the student getting weighed down by debt, plummeting through the sky, would work best as a billboard. I had found a free billboard mockup design linked above, and placed the image into it. I also used a free graffiti maker to create a script of graffiti that went on the bottom of my billboard. The graffiti reads, Free tuition. For the text on the billboard, I went with something simple, a single sentence that reads, 'Stop Student Debt'. I went with a phrase, as billboards are normally placed near roads. So whilst driving, people can just scan the words quickly rather than an entire paragraph.

The sequence imagery of fighting would be placed in an art gallery setting as conceptual photography. They would be large prints that are placed on a large white wall. This would allow people to stand in front of the image from a smaller distance and fully inspect the image. The gallery image used in that image was actually taken from my phone in the gallery inside my art building.

The images of the student sitting in despair would be on giant posters that are found on the sidewalks or on the side of buildings. The urban posters. They would be placed in a set of threes to really capture the attention of people walking past. Spanning across the posters, there would be text written, 'Cancel Student Debt' as the title, scattered across the posters. The smaller paragraph would be statistical reports that speak on the mental health issues caused by student debt.

The final image of being a puppet to student debt would be on a conceptual magazine cover and/or those university magazines that students make. Again, there will be factual information written across the cover that is shocking and easy to digust so that readers can retain the information faster and better. Making them curious about the topic of student loans.

[noesheen---buksh]

Week 10 - Draft Manipulations

Now that I have gotten all the shots needed, I can finally finish all my manipulations. With this image, I want my model, Dani, to be sitting in a corner of a dark room looking visibly distressed. I masked the image of her sitting on the chair and placed her in this fake corner made of tiles. I rubbed out the tiny bits of white marks that were left just to clean it up. I then added two separate images of Dani, 'crying' in despair, and placed them behind the sitting Dani. I changed the fill and opacity of the images so they looked like emotions leaking out or even different versions of her soul. I wanted some contrast, so I played around with the Brightness/Contrast effects on Photoshop as well as the colour balance and hue, till I got what I wanted. I still wanted to create some shadows, especially for the chair, so I created another layer and used the brush tool with no harsh edges and drew it in, then just lowered the opacity of that layer. So far, I am happy with the result, but I feel as if I am missing something, but I'm unsure what it is yet.

With this image, I wanted to create a sort of container, or walls, to trap the student inside. I had taken a photo of these tiles and had just duplicated several of them to create the walls. I also made the background darker to give it a more eerie feel. I also added in the ropes from the doll to the person which I just forgot to take a picture of.

For this image, I wanted to make a photo sequence just like Duane Michals, as well as add text. So I had made another image, like another frame of their fighting. I also placed a white border around the entire image for the text. I created an entire fake degree to use as a prop for these images. The degree would act as the child of this bad marriage, which would be in the foreground of the image. I played around again with the brightness and hue very subtly. I wanted to create some shadows so much like before, I created another layer and drew on where I wanted the shadow to be and lowered the opacity. I feel like this gave the image more depth.

In this image, I had placed a stack of paper on top of Dani, the student, weighing her down. There are also loose pieces of paper flying around, just to sell the illusion more. Again, I created shadows using the drawing method. I also played around with the brightness again. I want to add text in one of the papers that says Debt so I'll probably do that in the future.

For the other image, which was after the metaphor of borrowing money from the mafia, I had decided to drop it as it was not working out like I wanted it to. The angle that I wanted it to be did not match the image I had taken for it, and it was just not visually as strong as the rest of my images. So I decided to abandon it.

Draft finals

These are my draft finals. I am quite happy with how they turned out, however, there is still a bit more work that I would like done for them.

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Week 10 - Contact Sheets

I have taken my last photoshoot needed, just a couple of shots in different bends. I had Zoe hold the items which I will just photoshop out later.

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Week 9 - Next Major Photoshoot Plan

The next major photoshoot will be centred on getting the remaining props needed for my images. I will be making a fake degree as a prop for a child in one of the images, as well as images of just stacks of paper. This photoshoot will be done within my painting studio, the exact place where I had taken the previous photos, as there is a white wall and lighting, so I can easily mask the images later on in Photoshop.

[noesheen---buksh]

Week 9 - Research

IRD had said that at the end of April 113,733 people were overseas with student debt. About 24,000 of them their debt that is over 15 years old. Because of this IR has begun to arrest people at borders, taking a tougher line, calling it their last resort. Since the first of July 2023, 89 people have been warned that they could be arrested at the border. They are hoping that this provides awake-upp call for those who live overseas so that they can pay off their debt, and not get arrested at the borders if they come back to New Zealand for a family emergency.

I had thought that there were a lot of people who had fled overseas to avoid paying their debt, but I underestimated just how many people had done that. Especially since for a lot of people, their debt was over 15 years old.

The article starts off talking about an artist, Dionne Lee whose art career had taken off. But despite her recent success she still has been unable to pay her student debt. Lee estimates that her debt from both her undergraduate and graduate studies is roughly $90,000. She had even worked three jobs while in grad school and then again tried paying it off a couple of years later, but the interest kept on building.

It then goes on to say that her situation is not one of a kind, but a reality for many people in America. That student loan debt affects people that had dropped out and graduated, through all degree programs. However, for those who study the art, humanities and other subjects that are less likely to lead to well-paying jobs, it is particularly more difficult.

The article goes on further talking about different artists and how they have to work muiltple jobs, putting their passion and dreams aside just to make a dent in their debt. How it affects their everyday lives, families, relationships and even personal health.

The particular reason I was drawn to this article is that I am currently studying towards a Bachelor of Visual Arts and am thinking about also pursuing my master's. This is sadly mine and all my classmates' reality in the near future, in trying to pursue an artistic profession. Unfortunately, there aren't high-paying jobs in those fields that can help pay off our debt, and mostly, I'll have to pick up multiple jobs. This is the trouble in my paradise, the paradise of being able to attend a higher education institution and further my interest in my passion for painting, but the trouble of also putting myself into tremendous debt just to obtain it.

While looking for any artwork based on student debt, I came across this artwork by Vicky Virgin which is a three-part series of lecture demonstrations that investigates the ludicrously of student loan agreements through intricate dance and site-specific location.

I came across this older news article, which I found fascinating and wanted to share. A Chilean artist who goes by Fried Potatoes (Papas Fritas) had been sneaking into a notoriously private profit university and removing tuition contracts. He then burned the documents, making it impossible for that university to call the debt in. Francisco Tapia, the artist's real name, had claimed that documents were worth as much as $500m. He had also released a five-minute video in which he says, "It's over. You are all free of debt. You don't have to pay a penny."

The artist's move was the most extreme of a three-year campaign by the students and children demanding a free, improved public education. Later, they had claimed their biggest victory when the president, Michelle Bache, had outlined a multibillion-dollar project of educational investment reforms. During her proposal to end state subsidies to for-profit universities and potentially introduce free universities, students had scattered ashes from the burned documents in a symbolic protest against for-profit education scams outside the congressional hall.

Although the article is over 11 years old, I still thought it was such an inspirational read. The artist had actually started to investigate the for-profit university after he had read articles about students still having to pay their debts even after the university had shut down.

I wanted to research more into colours in photography so that I could enhance my imagery to get across the visual mood and themes.

Warm colours are often associated with energy and excitement. They are used to create intensity or a scene of urgency, usually drawing attention to a particular point. Cool colours are associated with stability, serenity and calmness. Often used to convey space or distance.

A way to use colour psychology is by considering the context of the image and the way you would want the audience to view it. Another way it can be used is in cultural associations with different colours, Western cultures vs Eastern cultures, etc. Colour psychology can also be used to create contrast and balance in an image.

[noesheen---buksh]

Week 9 - Progress Checkpoint

I would say that I am slightly behind where I would like to be right now, as I need some more images. However, I have done a lot of research around photographic manipulation artists to see other people's styles and how they treat an image. I am also thinking of how these images would be shown in the real world.

Future Planning

For the future, I am planning another photoshoot, which should be the last one needed to finish my images. As well, some more research into student debt and the effects, possibly also looking into colours to see how to colour grade my images.

[noesheen---buksh]

Week 8 - Draft Manipulation

Lately, I have just been cleaning up my images, eating the white line that was left behind while I was masking the subject. I can not do too much at this stage as I need to have another photoshoot to take images of all the other elements I want to incorporate within these manipulated images.

[noesheen---buksh]

Week 8 - Artist Research

Christopher McKenney

Pennsylvania-born photographer Christopher McKenney specialises in surreal photography. His artworks feature dream-like environments with an ethereal feeling. Below, selected a few images that I liked the most.

The composition of this image has an overall snowy background with low saturation and brightly colourfully, bunched balloons, which are relatively higher in saturation. This difference in saturation levels creates a visually interesting contrast, alongside the colours. The image also appears to have very even lighting, and nothing is placed over another. The tree and dried grass in the background lead off into the distance, creating leading lines that lead to the rope holding the balloons. The balloons placed in the centre are the focal point of the entire image. In the foreground/background, you can see faint footsteps in the snow also leading off into the image. Although the overall image is relatively simple, the focal point, leading lines and colours drew my attention. I am curious about how he accomplished this image, as the balloons look fake in a way. Was there someone holding the balloons, and did he edit them out? Did he take an image of the balloons separately and edit it into the background?

This image caught my attention as I was trying to decipher how he had created it. The composition of the image has the main subject appearing to come out of a golden frame in the centre of the image. The background and foreground are blurred with dried scattered leaves, to further draw the attention of the audience's eyes to the focal point. The figure emerging from the frame is covered in an off-white sheet of fabric; the bottom of it is missing. The overall image also has a low saturation, which had also drawn my attention, as everything was very evenly lit and coloured. I wondered how McKenney could manipulate this image where people holding the frame as another person was inside, and then remove them in post-production?

The visually bright fire captured my attention. The overall composition of this image has a man standing in the centre of the photo with a cardboard box over his head, lit on fire, holding what appears to be a book. Behind him was a large fence and a partial view of a house. In the foreground, he appears to be standing on dry grass. The overall image has relatively normal saturation except for the highly saturated fire, creating a sense of juxtaposition, alongside with overly cool-toned image and the warm tone of the fire. This contrast makes the box on fire the focal point of the image, where eventually the eyes will focus further around the image, noticing the man where the box is placed. I question if this is all one image and he had placed a lit firebox on someone's head, or a compilation of several images made into one.

[noesheen---buksh]

Week 8 - Research

A classmate of mine found this news article about debt in art and sent it to me.

Upon reading it, it talks about how debt affects environments, people and relationships in ways that often get lost in moral judgement and financial language. This group exhibition and symposium want to change that perspective, exploring how debt shapes representations and identities and how it moves through time and space.

The exhibition is set to open on June 9th, which is on submission day sadly, however, I will try to see the artworks surrounding it online.

I found this article by Harvard Law School, which was about student debt within America, but I feel that the key components from it can apply everywhere.

The article talks about the toll that students with student debt are currently having. A detailed report from the Georgetown University Centre on Education and the Workplace shows a 169% increase in college costs from 1980 to 2020. It also goes on to say that college was something that was either paid for/supported by the state, higher education institutions, or even inexpensive, but now it is almost only funded by the students or their parents taking out loans. This has now affected the individual lives of the borrowers and the young ability to plan for the future. A professor of sociology at Ohio State University, Rachel Dwyer, had called student debt a double-edged sword, acting as both a resource and a liability. The article then goes on to talk about how student debt eventually turns into a chronic stressor, having the borrowers feel a sense of injustice, as they were told their entire lives that they needed to go to college.

I found this article incredibly interesting as there was a lot of information about how student debt can affect current borrowers for their future, in regards to buying a home or health care. I also found that the stress of student debt does not go away even well into adulthood, which is scary for me.

I found the statistics on student loan balances in New Zealand on the IRD website. It was said that the nominal balance for the New Zealand-based borrowers had decreased by 2.4% from $11.7 billion to 11.4 billion from December 2023 to December 2024. It also goes on to say that the nominal balance for overseas-based borrowers had increased by 7.1% from $3.9 billion to $4.2 billion from December 2023 to December 2024.

Another statistic said the total number of borrowers had decreased by 3.8% from 505,390 to 486,088 from December 2023 to December 2024. The total number of overseas-based borrowers increased by 4.3% from 109,484 to 114,177 from December 2023 to December 2024. It was interesting to find this out. I could speculate that people who live in New Zealand have found the prices to attend uni way too high compared to overseas students, whose parents pay for them to have a higher education.

This is another article that I came across while trying to find research. The overall article was easy to read and digestible, it was published in an American context, talking about ways to cope with the stress that comes with debt. However, a particular section struck information that had come from a survey of readers from a financial coaching company, Student Loan Planner, which had said that,

"53% of high debt student loan borrowers have experienced depression because of their debt.”

“Nine in 10 borrowers experienced significant anxiety due to their loan burden.”

“One in 15 student loan borrowers surveyed have considered suicide due to their student loans.”

Even though this survey was done in America, I found it useful that the overall sentiment is true worldwide.

Another article talked about the different ways that student debt could potentially derail your life, such as making it difficult to purchase a home in the future or even renting a home if you live in an area where the cost of living is high. It also said that student debt could impede your career goals, as you may get a higher-paying job instead of the dream job, just to pay the debt off. It can also impact your credit score and decrease your net worth.

This was very helpful to know that student debt will stunt my paradise of being an artist with a higher education and creating artworks in the future, probably just to get a high-paying job to pay off my debt.

[noesheen---buksh]

Week 8 - 3 Main Challenges and Action Plan

The three main challenges that I am facing currently within my project are developing my imagery to be more complex and narrative-rich, lighting within my imagery and time management with the overall project.

At the current moment, my photos are okay, however, I want them to be layered with narrative and visually more interesting and complex. I feel like that would elevate my work to the next level and would better capture my trouble in paradise. The current plan to tackle this issue is more research into student debt/student loans as well as into different photographers and maybe just generally artists. I also want to look at other examples of works that are narrative-rich to help progress my work.

Currently, the lighting within my imagery is bland and basic, to tackle this I will look at other photographers to see how lighting works in their images as well as researching how different colours affect how an audience would read an image. I feel like that would also help elevate my work.

I am currently struggling with time management between this project, my major, which is painting, my theory class, which acts like another minor and my personal life. To tackle this, I am trying to create a timetable in which I dedicate different days to different subjects, trying to give my time to everything equally.

Feedback From Formative

The feedback I received from Natalie from the formative was that my pitch sets out a clear direction from the beginning, demonstrating good methodology in setting goals as well as developing practical steps towards them. The verbal aspect of the pitch was well delivered and was supported by a professional and well-designed deck. It showed strong conceptual development and connections. Things I need to improve on are staging elements in composition further and considering more of a layered narrative through symbology and lighting.

[noesheen---buksh]

Week 7 - Draft Manipulations

After taking all the pictures from my previous photoshoots, I started to play around with the composition of my imagery. In this first image, I wanted the puppet to control the model, as the puppet in all my imagery plays the character of 'student debt' or personifies it. The model plays the character of a student struggling with a loan. I want the imagery to have a narrative, each picture telling a thousand words. With this picture, I wanted student debt to have ominous lighting and a hovering large figure, while the student is smaller and feels scared/sad. I'll probably keep playing around with lighting and think of the backdrop for this. This concept was inspired by Kristian Schuller, as they had a similar-themed image before.

With this image, I saw a metaphor that compared student debt to a bad marriage and found that humorous, so I wanted to portray that. I had placed both figures into the scene, acting as if they were both fighting. I need to make the image more dynamic, with some form of contrast or something to make it more visually interesting. I am planning to add another element into the imagery, such as a table and a degree, as the child of this bad marriage. I also want to play around with double exposure like Duane Michals to make it more complex, I feel like that would suit this scene.

This image was also inspired by a metaphor, which is most of the images at this site. The metaphor was talking about how student debt weighs you down, so I wanted to create that sort of imagery. I had my model pose on a chair, both on her stomach and back, and edited the photos together. Using the picture of her on her stomach as the base and then taking the sections from the image lying on her back, such as her hair falling, as well as the tie. I selected those parts and created a mask, and placed it over the base image to create the illusion of her falling. Again, I need to make it more complex, perhaps with contrast and lighting, as well as figuring out what sort of image to put in the background that would complement the scene.

This image is a depiction of conversations I've had within my major class surrounding student debt. Quite literally, my classmates had dramatically grabbed their heads in distress or had fallen to the floor in agony, so I wanted to capture that conversation in conceptual photography. I wanted to play around with double exposure to create a more dynamic effect, but I have to work on that. The colours within this image hold no significance; they are just acting as placeholders.

For this manipulation, I again had seen a metaphor which stated that student debt is like borrowing from the mafia and was inspired to create a wacky shot of that. This is just the very base layer, I still have to edit the lighting and contrast to really make it pop as well as take a photo for the background of this image.

[noesheen---buksh]

Week 7 - Contact Sheet

This photoshoot was just taking pictures of my wooden figure that will play the role of student debt within all my imagery.