rrosenberg-artcenter-blog

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Cultural Appropriation

https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/08/21/to-the-new-culture-cops-everything-is-appropriation/?utm_term=.5dfa4628c7b5#comments

To the new culture cops, everything is appropriation

https://www.thoughtco.com/cultural-appropriation-and-why-iits-wrong-2834561

What Is Cultural Appropriation and Why Is It Wrong?

“Taking intellectual property, traditional knowledge, cultural expressions, or artifacts from someone else's culture without permission. This can include unauthorized use of another culture's dance, dress, music, language, folklore, cuisine, traditional medicine, religious symbols, etc.

It's most likely to be harmful when the source community is a minority group that has been oppressed or exploited in other ways or when the object of appropriation is particularly sensitive, e.g. sacred objects.”

Susan Scafidi, author of Who Owns Culture? Appropriation and Authenticity in American Law

First things first; dreads and afros are cultural appropriations, bindis are not a fashion accessory, headdresses are not for coachella, aztec patterns are not a summer fad, and blonde hair does not belong to white people.

Expecting to find countless articles on how cultural appropriation is a serious problem in society today I found a cringeworthy amount of articles written by privileged white people with a blog saying cultural appropriation is merely just another reason to complain. This shines a very serious light on the issue and showcases the lack of morals we possess in todays cultures. This is not a new problem in the slightest as Hollywood has been white washing movies and taping eyelids closed for quite some time but it is a problem that the internet has made more available to those.

Identity is clearly extremely important from culture to culture, from hairstyles to artifacts, from dances to language these all fall in line with identity. It is interesting to look at those who appropriate culture and wonder what they are taking away from it, are they looking to change their identity, is there a sense of true self or is it merely just a trendy fashion statement to get onto Coachella’s instagram page. It is important that when creating our own identity we do not oppress others and most importantly, the oppressors do not get to decide what is offensive and what is not which is so often the case and just become one person is fine with certain acts does not mean the entire culture if fine with your appropriation.

What is interesting with cultural appropriation is the lack of identity that people have, they follow trends which is no way wrong but they are so quick to jump any trend-train if they think it looks good enough. It makes you question what do people find important when they think of their identity. Do we base it off of our looks, our beliefs, our backgrounds? At what point do we draw a line in the sand and say enough is enough. It is also our jobs to constantly call out this identity theft and explain to those the importance of appropriation and why it is harmful. So often it goes swept under the rug, it is looked at as just another reason to complain, people believe that they are doing the culture a favor by wearing their hair in a certain way or wearing religious pieces as accessories etc etc but they fail to realize they can do this without fear of judgement or harassment as when a person of color will receive disrespect for the showcasing their natural identity.

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Creating Video Game Avatars

http://www.museumofplay.org/blog/chegheads/2011/11/creating-video-game-avatars/

Sharron Symonds states "the best part about creating an avatar is that a player has free rein to become whatever or whoever she [or he] wishes.” Its an interesting idea, we are so often told growing up there is no one better to be than yourself, so why contradict ourselves now? Videos games have been used as a way to escape for many people, it has offered the chance to make friends, to fit in where they typically have a hard time doing so or just the general sense of freedom from reality.

The word avatar is roughly translates to descent, but to some people it is a reflection of their personal self or their ideal self. This is further showcased in Alter Ego: Avatars and Their Creators by Robbie Cooper. His work shows the player and their character side by side and a short description of who they are and why they chose the character they did. His work shows a variety of people, limiting his work to no one group. Starting with the basics the people who make characters straight reflections of themselves with small adjustments such a hair color, weight, height etc. They want to experience a preferred life with their own personas in the game, maybe a significant other, maybe more popular, maybe smarter, maybe just a different occupation. They seek to have better lives than the one they actually live but they still want to maintain a sense of realism. Then we move to players like one that Robbie shot, Jason Rowe, a young boy with physical restrictions that provides him severe obstacles in his life. But on screen he his a warrior, heavily armored and an elite physical. Those like Jason use video games to free themselves of restrictions, they are now on an even playing field with everyone else, when they are become pixelated they no longer have constraints, they have a sense of temporary freedom. Then we have players who swap sexes when they create characters. More often than not the significance of their selection is based on type of character, powers, quests, etc but it also brings up the question about identity. Female players say they play as male characters because they get more respect from other players, male players often go for skimpiest outfit award. With that said it brings up the question that are these choices drive by desire for sexual pleasure and power or is there a question of identity within these players.

Something so small as avatars on a video game often go unnoticed, we don't pay attention to them, we hardly remember them once we buy the latest system. With that said it is extremely interesting to view the players away from the screen, and makes you question are we showing our true identities in virtual realities because we don't have a fear of judgement or restrictions or are we merely just creating these characters out of complete boredom and theres not much more to dig into.

It’s also interesting to look at games that restrict the player to little customization, do those game not appeal to the mass out of lack of customization or do those appeal more in the sense that with little customization we are all somewhat equal?

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Playlist

Music/Entertainment:

Blue Jeans - Lana Del Rey https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRWox-i6aAk

Nikes - Frank Ocean https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSaYWL2GBdg

Drop it Like its Hot - Snoop Dogg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaCodgL9cvk

Empire State of Mind - Jay Z https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhyUVM2w6ro

Tom Ford - Jay zhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flyPtRdcSMc

Thrift Shop - Macklemore https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK8mJJJvaes

Balmain Jeans - Kid Cudi https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTEPbiat2C8

Blue Suede Shoes - Elvis Presley https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1Ond-OwgU8

Blue Jeans - Blur https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgCcvGFEBFk

My Adidas - Run DMC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNua1lFDuDI

New Shoes - Paolo Nutini https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmbUNF1Q4R8

Cultural Appropriation

Kendall/Kylie Jenner - Rap vs Rock shirts - https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/06/30/kendall-and-kylie-jenner-accused-of-cultural-appropriation-this-time-by-notorious-b-i-g-s-mom/?utm_term=.3da3c4f70a75

Hipsters, Please don't culturally appropriate Holi on instagram - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hipsters-please-dont-culturally-appropriate-holi-on-instagram_us_58d18090e4b0be71dcf8c870?utm_hp_ref=cultural-appropriation

Some bullshit article written by a racist white lady promoting cultural appropriation - https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/08/21/to-the-new-culture-cops-everything-is-appropriation/?utm_term=.0e9f08be007b#comments

Sims/Video Games/Alter Egos

Sims - https://www.scribd.com/presentation/86929895/How-is-The-Sim-s-postmodern

Sims (stupid presentation) - https://www.scribd.com/presentation/86929895/How-is-The-Sim-s-postmodern

Sims (idk) https://prezi.com/aq_0lxkcccph/postmodernism-and-the-sims/

To Earn a Face - http://www.buzinkay.net/texte/dissertation-buzinkay.pdf

The Psychology of Video Game Avatars - http://www.psychologyofgames.com/2013/11/the-psychology-of-video-game-avatars/

Hows Does the Sims handle racism and gender - https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelthomsen/2014/08/15/how-does-the-sims-4-handle-gender-and-racism/#2a6b56b415cd

What the actual fuck - who are these nuts playing sims?? - http://kotaku.com/the-sims-players-confess-their-most-evil-deeds-1694855714

get a job - http://www.newsweek.com/parallel-play-268033

sadistic sims - http://www.criticalhit.net/gaming/sims-players-are-more-sadistic-than-you-thought/

Creating Video Game Avatars - http://www.museumofplay.org/blog/chegheads/2011/11/creating-video-game-avatars/

Alter Egos: Avatars and Their Creators - https://www.lensculture.com/articles/robbie-cooper-alter-ego-avatars-and-their-creators

Self Expression - Tattoo Culture

Changing Reputation of Ink - http://news.jrn.msu.edu/2015/02/a-changing-reputation-of-ink-the-evolution-of-tattoo-culture/

Tattoos: Subculture to Pop Culture - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mik-thobocarlsen/how-tattoos-went-from-sub_b_6053588.html

History and Evolution of Tattoos - http://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/honorsprojects/511/

Evolution of Tattoos in Western Culture - https://blogool.com/article/the-evolution-of-tattoos-in-western-culture

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Identity

w/ a hint of technology and a dash of entertainment

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Monster Culture (Seven Theses)

While reading Monster Culture (Seven Theses) by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen my mind kept taking me back to the recent election of Donald Trump and his sheep followers. I think the most terrifying part of this all is that I do not know if the monster is the Trump or if its his thousands of voters. This last election showcased a very dark side of America that I felt we have always brushed under the rug in hopes that one day it will merely go away until that massive pile of shit got so big we couldn't keep it contained.

Donald Trump I believe is truly the monstrous figure of the story but I also believe that he has such an uncanny ability to bring out the monster in all of us. Trump is a “business man who built his empire from the ground up” (with the help of a small loan of a million dollars of course). But he is not just a business man but also a cultural icon, one who has built his persona for the television and radio, who has created a catchphrase he has is now remembered by. But now he is none of those, he is the president of the united states. With this prior knowledge though he understands how humans work, he knows what buttons to press, what groups to tap into and who are stupid enough to follow.

Trump has come at a time of crisis when social progress was on a rapid trajectory up, LGBTQ was growing with marriage equality, POC were standing together and speaking up to protest their mistreatment from cops and authority, people in poverty were offered free healthcare and the chance at cheaper education giving them the ability to in small sense find a fair ground to the upperclass, and terrorist attacks were often closer to home and and more frequent. Trump saw a group of white individuals, angry with this progress and knew they were an easy tap into the election. He built monologues of fear and anxiety, he gave them the desire of a “better america” and the fantasy that white supremacist would gain full power again.

His followers believed they were different, they were smarter and more independent that their peers thus giving them the chance to make those who are different from their cousin-fucking, white-christian ways to be a danger to them. They attacked POC, they attacked the LGBTQ’s, and they targeted muslims as Cohen described the native americans as “unredeemable savages.” They used a fear of of attack as a way to justify the oppression of those different from them, they reevaluated their stance in power and jumped on the wagon.

In a sad but almost comical way, the these “The Monster Polices the Borders of the Possible” really ties back to the make america great campaigned where a wall was promised on the border of mexico to stop the illegal immigration of mexicans to the states. This really makes you wonder if the border Trumped promised to protect was not only the border for America to keep immigrants out or if he really meant the border of his own “domestic sphere.” His attempt to ban the travel of muslims, to erase affordable healthcare, and preventing the general sense of mobility as Cohen describes as intellectual, geographic, or sexual and delimiting the social space. The use of nationalism is really shown being the power tool to attract such a following.

Trump not only showed the world he is a monster but he helped showcase to the world the monsters that have grown like a cancer throughout the states. With the population struck in half, chomping at each other’s throats we are being shown the monstrous characteristics that we all share. While we all deny we possess these characteristics and keep pointing fingers the monster at the top of the foodchain is watching down and playing puppets with both sides creating not a greater america but an america where he and his rich powerful friends will forever be in charge.

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The Matrix

First and foremost, I have found it increasingly difficult to create time where I can sit down and watch movies since attending ArtCenter. This has sadly not changed in these last weeks. Finding the movie has been a struggle so I've attempted to gather scenes and intertwine them together through a handful of tabs on my internet browser. I have not seen the Matrix so I cannot write based off prior knowledge either so I can't really even vaguely attempt to understand this movie.

“This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.”

I chose this quote before watching the movie, it was the one quote where I felt I was familiar with The Matrix, take the red pill or the blue, a meme that has been spread throughout all social medias. Seeing the quote take place in the movie I felt that it did not designate as much as I had hoped it would. With that said the quote was interesting nonetheless. As the movie starts out there is a constant shift between real and what is simulation that those are living in the movie. They refer back to Alice in Wonderland, a girl who has fallen down the hole and into a world unreal and full of awe. They two are extremely similar in the sense that Alice could have fallen down a hole, hit her head, received a concussion, and had dreamed her entire adventure and although it was a cartoon we had believed she stumbled upon a world unknown, a real hidden within a real. This follow suites with The Matrix and Neo. His life seems to bounce between realities making the viewer question if Neo is dreaming this all or if he is actually living. Once we see the bug get vacuumed out of his stomach though we have sense of belief that he actually had that happen. It is interesting though because why is it that we see that scene are start to believe he is not dream.

When offered the pills, he has a choice to wake up from a dream or continue further into this trance-truth seeking mission. This is interesting because it offers the viewer the idea that everything they have seen can be either be a massive dream where Neo wakes up and its all over or he can actually have lived through this all and now can decipher what was real and what was dreamt.

I chose to read Simulacra + Simulations before watching these scenes from the movie and although the reading was challenging it is interesting seeing the influence in the film. Baudrillard discusses the sense of destruction of society while a reproduction imitates the life and death as well, flawlessly, making you question what is real. This is shown in the film that society has become slaves to a computer, but masked by The Matrix, a simulation that prevents “slaves” from realizing the world for what it realizing, decaying.

Morpheous discusses the Matrix almost as a religion, created by a single being, creating and making the decision on how the world will live. Morpheous and his crew are seeking the truth as in does those who seek religion. The idea that we are blind to the truth, masked by an imitation of our society to hide a reality is constantly question in religions, sci-fi movies, and philosophy theories alike.

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Simulacra + Simulations

Simulacra: An image or representation of someone or something

an unsatisfactory imitation or substitute

I will start off by saying that I had trouble reading and understanding this text. I read parts multiple times and I feel I failed to truly grasp what was being said in the writings. I either do not understand what the author is trying to convey or I do not understand the way the author speaks and therefore I struggled with this quite a bit.

In the most general and vague summary of the authors writing I believe that Jean Baudrillard is discussing how we are a society built on the repetition and influence of older eras thus creating an almost exact simulation that will outlast the trends we are simulating. We are creating maps that are surviving longer than towns are surviving. Our society is slowly degrading but our records are strong and not moving. We are creating a reality that is no longer there, a hyperreal reality as he states.

We are so focused with created perfection, everything must be accurate and factual and if it not perfect it is wrong, if it wrong it is worthless. We are losing the sense of creativity and the we have a growing fear of messing up, of being wrong, we crave perfection but with perfection we lack the ability to take risks and create. Baudrillard discusses that our sense of creating is no longer imitation, no reduplication but instead the ability to recreate real, to substitute reality with itself in the sense that we can replicate it and mass produce it.

This is interesting in itself as you can notice these trends in the creative industry today. Product designers are not making tangible objects but instead rendering concepts into photographs to replicate real, photographers are photoshopping models to abide by the “perfect” body, thus promoting a real life mentality that is truly not accessible by people in society. We are given the resources to create but instead we look to substitute real for a real that looks better.

“When the real is no longer what it used to be! nostalgia assumes its full meaning. There is a proliferation of myths of origin and signs of reality; of second-hand truth, objectivity and authenticity. There is an escalation of the true, of the lived experience; a resurrection of the figurative where the object and substance have disappeared.” (pg. 5)

Baudrillard’s use of Disneyland as an example for hyperrealism is extremely interesting in the sense where he discusses the stages of the amusement ending with being abandoned at the exit. The use of simulation has been adopted by society to escape real and substitute with a reality that is clearly fiction but done in such a way that you believe you are still exploring real. Where does the phrase “real-world” come and why do we feel the need to explain to the children and young adults that the real-world is a place of punishment and stress, filled with responsibilities that are not required of the younger population. If you do not accept the real-world mentality does this you have not grown up, are you living a fictional reality such as one Disney has monetized or are you living a life that truly real as it is the true organic sense, completely raw.

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Fight Club

The narrator, played by Edward Norton, is first seen participating in a support group for men with testicular cancer. The name of the support group is “Remaining Men Together.” The group of men you make up the support group showcases the crisis of masculinity in America and the fragility of such in men in society as you witness from the room full of men sobbing over issues. This is where you first are introduced to Bob, a former bodybuilder and wrestler, now victim to testicular cancer. Bob abused steroids in attempts to grow bigger muscles which ironically gave him testicular cancer resulting in the removal of his genitals and causing him to become feminine. The film showcases the irony in the attempt to achieve the stereotypical search for gender norms.

With the title of the movie referring to a club set up by men where they express their anger and rage of their lives and unleash it on each other in all out brawls. Then they get up and hug and they move on to the next sad-men duo to fight. Their self destructive ways of coping with their lives showcase the fragility of masculinity in these men in that they feel the need to cause physical pain and torment to each other to help mask their emotional need for self-healing.

Fincher showcases consumerism is todays society by showing a branded logo that is in everyone’s hand as they sip to come alive everyday. Fincher's use of identity through brands to help identify members of society puts to light the materialistic ideology of today’s culture. We are so often connected to logos and names that we lose sight of people as individuals but instead as products themselves. This is seen when the narrator uses the restroom and peers at an IKEA magazine and wonders to himself what furniture he piece he is, what object describes him as a person the best. We are no longer individuals of personality and thoughts and opinions but instead an objects bought to bring impressions to others.

With materialistic mindsets, money becomes such a important factor in culture as so much of our lives revolve around money. Tyler Durden believes that the destruction of banks and their computer systems to relieve everyone of debt is a way to free people and put everyone from the 1% to the 99% in the same category and bring an equal playing field for all individuals alike.

Fight Club brings to attention mental illnesses and showcases them in a light that keeps the viewer interested and often confused, making you constantly questioning what you are seeing. With the narrator suffering from schizophrenia where he has created a persona in his mind and projected him into his everyday life. Mental illnesses often causes for onlookers to keep distance but his use of his schizophrenia character Tyler Durden, the narrator has created a whole society where he is unknowingly the ring-leader. Fight Club mainly made up of men suffering from anxiety, depression, etc. offers the chance for members to lose their labels and identities of such problems and lets them go without the need for an identity other than their names and the way they fight.

Fight club constantly crosses the notion of the 4th wall throughout the movie where the narrator is telling a story to the audience as if he is talking to you person to person but then goes forth and you follow the narrator through his day to day life. The use of this creates a constant question of what you are viewing and how the narrator’s character pose in the story. With the use of Tyler added on it begins to create the question that if the Tyler or the narrator’s character is imaginary and causes for a cross section between being told a story while simultaneously watching the story happen in real time.

Fincher also uses cinematography to create postmodernist notions where he has scenes that depict famous pieces of art. Recreating these important pieces creates a scene of blurred lines between pop culture and fine art, where you begin to replace meaning for aesthetics  but in this sense, Fincher creates a scene with Tyler in a tub similar to Jacques-Louis David’s Death of Marat. Marat was a leader in the french revolution which in general sense for the movie, Tyler was the leader of the revolution created in Fight Club.

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Wes Anderson was the director behind H&M’s “Come Together” campaign commercial and he really stuck to his roots when styling the commercial. Lighting was very soft, with a combination of cool and warm temperature throughout the film. Anderson’s utilizes his well-known style of 90 degree angles, shot either straight on or from the side, with mood created from shifting from scene to scene, location to location by moving to one direction and zooms. Scenes are both shot from outside a train in the snow looking into warm rooms and offices, as well as hallways of trains traveled by the conductor and assistants as well as passengers. The people in the short film both compare and contrast quite drastically. Passengers are styled in H&M’s 2016 winter collection which is cool and neutral colors, creating a mixture of formal to casual, comfortable to highly stylized, all trendy and tailored to a modern day fit. The employees follow as timeless style, dressed in blues and greens, and tradition conductor and assistant outfits. Every scene creates a memory, it builds each character without needing for any real backstory but the scene that stands out the most for me is when the camera is outside of the train, going from window to window showcasing every passenger who is being delayed on the train. As the camera slides left you see a woman standing in a bathroom, the lights are warm and the room is painted a soft pink with white detail and she wears a nightgown. The outside of the train is cold and blue and offers a beautiful frame that contrast the image showing complete opposites and you capture a sense of intimacy through the visual without knowing her name, the sound of her voice or where she is going or who she is going to see.

In the background a choir sings christmas carols that are both soothing and nostalgic but also has a sense of sadness and loneliness, most likely because it combined with the visuals. The sound of wind and a moving train lay atop the choir while sound affects for different motions are exaggerated to provide a comic whimsy to the film. A strong voice speaks, it is direct and short, it sounds like it belongs to a leader and coincidentally it belongs to the conductor. His voice is clear and sounds like you are in the same room as the conductor, once the camera pans to the right to introduce the passengers, the clear voice turns into an intercom showcasing movement of scene as well as difference of location. When the voice goes silent during certain transitions, the choir plays louder and creates a sense of drama and suspense. Towards the end of the commercial when the scene shows passengers coming together the music changes from a choir to more uppity christmas tunes that showcase happiness in a time of sorrow. The use of this creates a sense of transitioning from feelings from sadness and loneliness to happiness and cheer.

The author of this video has spent his entire career creating such a specific style that if you are familiar with his work you will understand the use of sound and visuals and how he constructs pieces. This piece comes after a very successful film he has created just a couple years prior, “Grand Budapest Hotel” which creates an extremely charming winter wonderland, clearly the style H&M sought after for the “Come Together” campaign. The audience that this piece was directed to was a younger crowd, those who look to be on trend and stylized to a way that creates a sense of dreaminess that Wes Anderson so often forms in his own movies. If you are unfamiliar with his work, you might be confused by the uses of camera angles and transitions as if it was made by a low-budget studio or a crafty student, but those who are unfamiliar cannot deny the attractiveness of the short film. The piece seems to propose a nostalgic sense of feeling that draws a young culture that is tired of modern trends and crave books to kindles, records to mp3s, newspapers to apps, etc etc, i.e.. hipsters.

This video appealed to me as I am fan of Wes Anderson and his work, his ability to compose a beautiful still image in every scene has always attracted me. His use of contrast of temperatures and colors creates a nostalgic feeling that appeals to the child in me.

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http://www.davidblackstudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/davidblack-cerrogordo-vaquero_1920-1920x1260.jpg

Visual Representation

When looking online for an image that I felt  identified me I often ran into this problem where I lost interest looking at thousands of images on poorly curated feeds. I feel like looking online for inspiration you begin to grow numb to art, when you scroll through hundreds even thousands of images I feel like I begin to ignore pieces and scrolling becomes so mindless. So instead of scrolling through feeds on top of feeds, filtering categories looking for the perfect image I fell back into my personal collection of books. The act of turning pages, you appreciate each individual image so much more, you pay attention to every detail the image showcases; the lighting, the color, the size of the print. There is something extremely intimate, borderline romantic about looking at a print, you get a chance to witness exactly what the artist wanted you to see. The path I took to find an image that I felt I could identify myself with was a timely path that ultimately fell back onto me scrolling through a feed on tumblr looking for a specific photo I fell in awe within a book. As I scrolled through thousands of of my likes on instagram and explored the deep depths of flickr and 500px I ultimately felt no sense of appreciation or found anything relatable as I had from a book I acquired just in these last few months. As I turned the pages of David Black’s Cerro Gordo, I began hunting for Vaquero & Painted Backdrop because it was an image that has stuck with me since my first time viewing it. Since there was a need to explore images online though I made it a point to avoid just scanning an image and explaining the importance of it but instead to make an effort to find it online, an apparently easy task. But instead of typing into google “david black cerro gordo” and finding the image within seconds I wanted to go through the motions of discovering the image through multiple websites and pathways. In a chaotic mess of about twelve links to only three different websites I scrolled through another hundred images of whoever’s work with images by David Black tucked in here and there only to find an image I already possess in my extremely small library. I have found through this process that the effort it takes to find an specific image hidden within thousands of images of complete shit takes a toll your mind and you really lose track of an abundance of work and often go and ignore so many strong pieces because the internet is so saturated with such garbage you just continue to scroll.

David Black’s Vaquero & Painted Backdrop had such a strong impact on me the moment I opened his book and the two page spread laid across my lap. David explains that Cerro Gordo, once a ghost town on the edge of Death Valley used to mine silver that was later used by Eastman Kodak to create film stock that captured Western stories for Hollywood, is now his home in the Echo Park where he, like the ghost town itself, has faced love and heartbreak, success and failure. Vaquero represents who I am, who I want to be, and how I want my work to be perceived. With such depth and layers, the ability for you to first view and then begin to see new details the longer you stare. At first glance it appears that a man is standing on fire, his posture does not show chaos though, you see him leaning with a sense of calm, which is something I strive to perceive that no matter the stress I attempt to keep an appearance of calm and collected, and a stable state of mind. The figure is hidden with the lighting, still showing a presence but no clear identity which is how I like to imagine myself, I do not like being in the spotlight, I would always rather be just a figure, a wallflower watching over but not being shined upon or the center of attention. The background being filled with mountains represent my childhood growing up in both Colorado and Washington where the mountain ranges are vast and surround your every view. The colors and lighting of the photo represent a calm but dramatic view that brings on the look of a staged photograph, resulting in David having complete control of the process but the flame and the figure reacting to the flame is so organic and I believe the balance between organic and complete control is how I tend to view life and helps keep me at ease.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJnuXQM41Dk

“Slick Watts” by Blue Scholars

The video I chose as a representation of myself is Slick Watts by Blue Scholars which is a music video done by hip-hop duo from my home of Seattle. I chose this video because it really hits home and has a special place in my heart. Blue Scholars is a locally famous hip-hop group who I grew up listening to with friends and actually had the opportunity to work with a handful of times from shooting shows and BTS work for small occasions. I chose this video cause its showcases a specific loyalty those from Seattle have for their city, its a sense of pride I will always have for my home no matter where I reside at the time. In the video you will see the camera travel from restaurant to restaurant, landmark to landmark, and people waving around a west-coast foam finger that reads “Town All Day���. The culture of food, music, family and friends, and the town (Seattle) thrive and was a major part of my childhood and my upbringing, it will forever be who I am and this video displays such aspects of my life in a matter that is as casual as a day in the pacific northwest.

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