#I was going to do it with homelander but soldier boy felt more appropriate

[komotionlessqueenmm]

Incorrect The Boys quote (1.0)

Soldier Boy : Honey, Pumpkin, Sugarplum-

(Y/n) cuts him off : What did you do?

Soldier Boy : Why does something have to be wrong?

(Y/n) gives him a pointed look, making him cave.

Soldier Boy rubbing his neck nervously : I may or may not have destroyed your car.

(Y/n) fuming : YOU WHAT!?

(2.0 here)

[thesilmarillionblog]

IMPOSTOR

Summary: Black Noir discovers he has been replaced after he wakes up from his two-month stay at Vought Hospital. He doesn't take it well.

Characters: Black Noir, Fake Black Noir from The Boys (TV) Season 4

Warnings: Violence, language, soft Black Noir, brutal Black Noir

Word Count: 1551

A/N: English is not my first language.

͟͟͞͞➳ This fiction is a gentle fuck you to E. Kripke. New Noir is not my Noir. I love Nathan Mitchell a lot, though. Babygirl. ✨

A deep sense of sorrow and suffering overcame Noir as he used his gloved hands to rub the long scars on his abdomen. Homelander, whom he considered a friend, had nearly killed him just because Noir hadn't informed him about his biological father, Soldier Boy. Since they had been keeping this a secret for decades, Vought wouldn't be grateful if Noir told a thing. Though he didn't intend to break Homelander's heart, he had struck him so hard in the stomach that he could see his organs everywhere. He felt, nonetheless, that he handled confronting his past quite nicely.

He breathed a sigh of relief when he heard that the CIA had captured Soldier Boy once more. Decades later, when the time came, he was not sure if he would see him face-to-face, but he knew he would be prepared. 

He feared he would die there, too, when Homelander buried his full fist in his abdomen, but unexpectedly, Homelander gave him a lecture about friendship and honesty before giving him a significant dose of Comp-V in order to save him. Noir knew that, beyond his strange idea of his friendship, Homelander was really furious and disappointed with him. That is why he forgave Homelander as just like he forgave Noir. 

Noir spent months in the Vought Hospital before preparing to rejoin the team. 

Ashley whispered, “Sir,” as Noir continued to stare at her expressionlessly. Ashley had a nervous smile on her face. “I think I must inform you that you are replaced by someone else.”

Noir straightened abruptly, moving in closer to Ashley to get her to clarify exactly what she was telling him. He let out an irate sigh and waited for her to go on. 

“The public was asking about you, and to not make things anymore complicated, Vought decided to take a new Noir into the team, looking just like you.”

Noir thought, Fuck, fuck, fuck. That was unfair. Fuck Vought and everyone. 

That was not only impossible but also a massive betrayal of his complete allegiance to Vought. He had served the company for years, and that was how they repaid him.

Noir began to inhale in rage as Ashley left the room swiftly without saying anything further. He wouldn't allow a fake to lead those who supported him to believe he was the real Noir. The true Noir was Black Noir. End of discussion. 

Picking up his phone, he sat down in the middle of the hallway to see the latest news and check the most recent updates about himself. 

He snarled with hatred as he saw his own supporters applauding the imposter while he was acting foolishly in front of the camera. They had no idea that he had suffered greatly in the previous few months and had experienced a near-death experience. How could they not see that it was obviously not him? 

Noir lost all patience with the nonsense and smashed the phone between his hands violently. He then placed his hands on his head and considered the next step of action. He would not give in so easily. Noir would absolutely teach the false one how to act appropriately in public, as it was evident that he didn't know how. 

He looked up and saw that one of his duck friends was clutching his hand. 

“You were incredibly brave and strong to withstand such an attack from Homelander. We are all proud of you,” he replied, giving him a shoulder pat. 

Noir crossed his arms and looked away. No matter what, he wasn't satisfied with the circumstances surrounding him. 

“Come on,” his friend said, giving him another leg squeeze. “The new one is not as good as you, and you can prove everyone that.”

How? Noir pondered, unsure of what to do. Things would get much messier if he disobeyed Vought, and he really didn't need that at this point. 

“You embody the true spirit of Black Noir, while he lacks your strength and bravery. Given your current state of recovery, Vought wouldn't have any problem if you told him to move aside.”

No, Noir thought. Today, he was going to expose that fraud and prove to everyone who was superior. He would never permit somebody to behave in such a way. He was adored by everyone for his true self. He refused to give up all the adoration he had and rightfully earned. 

His friend sat by his side and said, “If you kill him, don't you think Vought will get angry at you?”

They won't give a damn. They never do anything if the company is involved. Noir did not know a life outside of Vought and Homelander, so even though he was terrified of them, he reasoned that one act of disobedience wouldn't harm anyone and that no one would give a shit.

Noir made up his mind then and there, dropping his damaged phone to the ground as his friend passed by.

He said, “I'm so proud of you,” and then he vanished once more. Noir felt joy and satisfaction fill his heart. He was confident that he could handle this circumstance as needed. Just like he always did.

Noir waited for fraud to appear in his home for hours while tracking and waiting in a shadowy place after sharpening his knives and weapons. Admittedly, he was a little dramatic, but he knew it would be effective.

When the new one eventually came inside the house after many hours, the fake one noticed something wasn't quite right. An odd fragrance permeated the entire place. Then Noir emerged from his hiding place, his blades sharpened in his palm, and wandered slowly in front of the window, the moonlight brushing over his helmet. He was satisfied that his entrance proceeded exactly as he had planned and knew he looked fine and cool enough.

“You are a strange one, dude; fuck off,” the man laughed. “If you just gave me a call, I'd have invited you, you know.”

‘What a bitch’ Noir thought to himself, growing more irate as the new guy spoke without pausing. 

“Heard Homelander beat the shit out of you.” He inquired, “How did you even survive?” Noir stopped pacing and glanced at him. His wounds hurt when Homelander was brought up; he remembered all those painful memories. 

Noir tucked his knives away in the back of his suit and showed him the papers he had prepared, telling him the one on which he had written ‘now I kiill you.’ 

“Man, fuck you. You're not as scary as you believe, and you're forgetting that, despite the fact that I am a supe, Vought purposefully picked me.”

Noir laughed beneath his mask, but his laughter was more of a fury than an expression of joy. Next, he handed the new one another piece of paper and said, “Nobody nevv me. I am unigue.”

He firmly challenged him, saying, “I'm not the new you,” which wasn't a wise move given Noir's desire for a real fight. After all, he spent his months doing nothing but lying in bed; he was hungry for a proper fight. “I'm superior to you in some way. People adore me.”

It's me they love, not you. 

“Guess we have to solve this fucking mess fist to fist, man to man, huh?”

Noir, unable to contain his resentment and hatred any longer, grabbed his knives and swiftly assaulted the impostor. Noir laughed this time because he could feel the fake one's anxiety and tense breathing. He was certain that he would be too strong for this feeble con artist.

He made an attempt to fight Noir with his pathetic fists, but Noir knew that man was much weaker than expected, so he dropped his knives and took the man's head, ripping it from his body in one motion. He was holding his bloody head in his palm, his entire suit smeared with blood. He placed one hand on his hips, and, for a time, he was unable to stop grinning beneath his mask. Vought found him specifically for the weakest man alive. Or not anymore. 

Noir put his head down on his desk and peered expectantly into Stan Edgar's eyes, displaying all of his brutality and pleading with him to return to Seven immediately. Enough time had passed. 

“What the hell, Noir?” With a disgusted mutter, Edgar averted his gaze from the bloodied head. “Get this thing out of my sight, oh god.”

Noir remained motionless, waiting for him to make a statement. 

“You're back to Seven, okay. Are you happy now?” He said it hastily. “I was already going to kick him out, you sick maniac fuck.”

Noir nodded to Edgar, took the head back off his table, breathed a peaceful sigh, and exited the room, placing the lifeless head in the closest container. 

That is where you end your head up if you fuck with him. 

────⋆⋅☆⋅⋆──────⋆⋅☆⋅⋆──────⋆⋅☆⋅⋆──────⋆⋅☆⋅⋆──

A/N: Here's my other Black Noir fics: Stranger and In the Middle of the Night. Stay tuned for more and let me know what you think!˖ ࣪ .♡˚.

[peroxideprinces]

not a poem but instead the start of a fic

The five rebels sit around the fire. The sky is as dark as the void deep below them. Half of them idly sip from mugs of rum.

If you had told Wilbur a year ago that he would leave home in a fit of anger, that would lead him to the best months of his life, he would have laughed. That Wilbur had never dreamed of leaving his brother and father behind in the midst of war.

He doesn’t even remember what he was mad about. Perhaps he felt under appropriated. Or maybe his family was babying him again. Whatever it was, it was enough for him to pack a bag and storm out. Over the next few weeks he made his way across the country, and into Essempi. Once inside, he saw all the injustices the people here had to face, and he decided to stand up against it.

That leads us to now.

The past day had been spend preparing for a fight they know is coming. It had only been a few weeks since Dream was made aware of their presence, yet he was taking action.

Wilbur felt as if he had to do this. Not only for the silly rivalry his family has had against Dream’s for generations, but also for the people around him he had grown to love. Techno would be jealous if he saw him now.

Fundy is almost asleep on Eret’s shoulder, and Tubbo looks dead on his feet. Wilbur can’t help but feel content with the family he’s made for himself here. His arm is wrapped around Tommy in an almost protective way.

Eret yawns, before speaking in a hushed tone, “I’m going to get Fundy in his sleeping bag before I have to carry him.”

There are hushed responses from the remaining three revolutionaries.

Wilbur has always had a sharp tongue, but he wouldn’t have gotten this far without the rest of the rebels. Eret supplied them with armor and weapons. Tubbo was an amazing strategist. Fundy, the man he considered a son, could make potions like no other. And Tommy, god Tommy. He was the best soldier Wilbur had ever met. He would go as far as to say he’s better than Techno.

Of course he would never admit that to the boy.

Tommy and Tubbo had begun to engage themselves in a quiet chat. Something about their homelands of Hypixel. Some part of Wilbur wished he knew more about the two’s history. Some days they seemed as if they had known each other for years, and others they acted as complete strangers.

He had met the two exactly 7 months before. Tommy had attempted to pickpocket him, and when caught he proceeded to bite Wilbur. Tubbo bailed him out of the jail cell that stunt had landed him in.

You could tell the two were not from Essempi simply from the way they held themselves. They had a confidence that no one in lower Essempi dared show.

Perhaps thats what attracted Wilbur to them. They were bold, something that was very important for his plans.

Wilbur began to hum a quiet tune, it was a slow one that sounded of hope and melancholy.

oh my god . oh my god . omg omgomgmogm THIS IS SAUR <333333333

[thesteadydietofeverything]

‘Ni No Kuni II' Fights Fire with Friendliness

I played the final chapter of Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom hours after President Trump, a world leader cartoonish, short-sighted, and petty enough to fit fairly inconspicuously among the cast of villains in this storybook JRPG, announced and carried out an airstrike on Syria. As our country resigned itself to add fuel to the fire of one of the worst humanitarian crises in modern history, and risked upsetting its already tenuous relationship with other powerful nations, I helped the cat-eared boy king, Evan Pettiwhisker Tildrum, and his gang of eternal optimists, fulfill his mission of uniting the world under the banner of peace and happiness ever after.

As with many moments of this game, it should have felt cheap. To reduce the world’s ever-complicating and deepening evils of poverty, war, and power to something that can be resolved by the good-natured idealism of youth and a bit of combat that feels hardly more violent than a schoolyard scrap. And yet, I was moved. And it wasn’t the first time. This is a game that regularly turns saccharin, unrealistically tidy storytelling into genuinely affecting moments: moments that feel significant not just for their heart but almost urgently vital in their message. In our politically tumultuous age, where the burdens of inequity and violence feel heavy enough that predicting humanity’s imminent demise has become commonplace, Revenant Kingdom offers a balm equally aggressive in its dedication to locate and cultivate the goodness in everyone: the more ostensibly villainous the person in question, the more powerful the eventual redemption.

Since the game was obviously in production for a number of years, it’s unlikely the creators predicted our current placement on the doomsday clock at two minutes to midnight in the year it was released, but the opening scene begins with the collective nightmare scenario of 2018: the nuclear destruction of a city that looks conspicuously like New York. The president of this unnamed country, Roland Crane, is driving into the city as the detonation occurs, and he only has moments to witness the annihilation of his home and his people before he finds himself transported to a fantastical land, in the private chambers of the newly annointed young King Evan. After only moments of confusion, Roland seems to embrace the escape afforded by this mysterious event, helping Evan flee his own kingdom after his late father’s duplicitous advisor, Mausigner, stages a coup.

For long stretches of the game, Roland rarely mentions his destroyed homeland, but it’s a powerful enough opening image that the game doesn’t need to continually remind us of it - we know that Roland’s thoughts and actions must stem from his recent trauma, regardless of how shockingly good he is at hiding it. That image never left my mind during my roughly forty hours of play through Revenant Kingdom’s otherwise beautiful, charming, and whimsical world of entertainingly accented anthropomorphic denizens, just as it never leaves Roland’s. It’s an audaciously memorable way to stage the game’s ambitious anti-war themes.

It’s also a sharp departure from the decidedly more personal story of the games predecessor, Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch. While that game, Level-5’s agreeable collaboration with Studio Ghibli, began with a similarly traumatic event - the death of the protagonist's mother - the stakes felt decidedly smaller. With Ghibli out of the picture this go around, Level-5 has maintained the original’s gorgeous, anime-inspired cell-shaded art style, and Joe Hisaishi once again turns in a fantastic score, but despite these aesthetic similarites, the gameplay of Revenant Kingdom is largely unrecognizable from its predecessor.

While White Witch had fairly standard turn-based, Pokemon-style combat, Revenant Kingdom is more action oriented, in the vain of something like Kingdom Hearts. Inventing combos of light and heavy attacks is fun enough, but the simple hacking and slashing at the heart of combat is complicated and balanced by a number of other systems, including dodging/rolling/jumping, “Higgledies” (little Pikmin-esque creatures that grant certain powers and spells during combat), and most importantly, the “Zing” effect. Every character can switch between three weapons freely during combat, each of which builds up a meter. Once that meter reaches 100%, that character can unleash a special move, anything from a devastating physical attack to an elemental spell. Keeping the Zing cycle going through combat is an actively engaging juggle, something that makes for rarely stale or repetitive combat. It helps that, also unlike White Witch, this game keeps grinding at a minimum, a trait that in comparison to most JRPGs feels surprisingly generous.

After Evan is ousted from his throne, he settles down in a relatively unoccupied territory where he builds a new kingdom from the ground up, which he names Evermore. This conceit introduces two other brand new systems that Revenant Kingdom employs, to varying degrees of success. One is a military combat mini-game called Skirmish battle, in which the player controls squads of soldiers as they face down enemy armies, such as rogue bandits intent on stealing his land. The combat here is automatic, with soldiers engaging each other on their own as soon as they’re close enough. Where the player comes in is in positioning and morale boosting - there’s a rock, paper scissors system in which sworded soldiers can easily best axed soldiers, axed soldiers beat speared, and spears beat swords. The player rotates these squads in positions that are most efficient, all the while ordering them to charge and defend at opportune moments. It’s a simple system, one that’s hardly a pain to engage with, and yet one I was rarely happy to have to do. There’s too little control over soldiers to make it much more than a mindless exercise, and there are sharp spikes in enemy levels that mean if you’re trying to complete all the side quests involving Skirmishes, you’ll have to do a decent amount of grinding. Thankfully, this is largely optional, and though you do have to be a certain level to complete sections of the main game, it never feels like too much.

What felt more at odds with my enjoyment in this system, though, outside of its exact mechanics, is its language and presentation, which just doesn’t seem to match the whole spirit of the game. Evan builds Evermore in the name of world peace - he wants to end war by bringing all nations of the world together. And yet, part of the game has him doing this by engaging in actual battle. The regular combat system feels more excusable for this, as you’re mostly fighting actual monsters or robots, and it feels primarily in the name of defense rather than offense. But that Evan is building a standing army of soldiers to wage war seems antithetical to the rest of the game. Even though it’s generally presented in a cutesy way, using the chibi character designs of the overworld, it’s a bit hard to reconcile.

One can similarly lob these criticisms at the very fact he maintains a monarchical structure in Evermore, but this is where the other new game system comes into play, which feels decidedly more thought out. The player gets to help build Evan’s new kingdom in a manner that doesn’t feel entirely removed from Metal Gear Solid V’s Mother Base building. You build new structures around the kingdom, from shops that help you develop new weapons, armor, spells and Higgledies, to bazaars, lumber yards, farms, and other services that earn you various resources, which can help with both crafting and with completing the game’s many side quests. To manage these places, you select citizens of your kingdom that are particularly suited to the task at hand. Engaging with the multiple menus of managing Evermore isn’t always fun - there’s a lack of intuitiveness in the layout that makes certain tasks more tedious and time consuming than they really ought to be. I hope that this is the kind of quality-of-life issue that could be fairly easily fixed in subsequent patches.

Citizens join your kingdom when you complete side quests, which usually involve doing some sort of favor for them before they agree to pack up and move. There can be a certain lack of imagination in the player tasks for side quests, which too often involve simple fetch or delivery quests. And yet, side quests are compelling for a number of reasons. First is that every time you gain a new citizen, it feels like a legitimate reward that allows you to move forward with a new project in Evermore. And between quick load times, multitudinous fast travel points scattered around the world map, and an airship that can get you just about anywhere within mere seconds, the pacing of these quests feels appropriately zippy in relation to the task at hand. It’s not difficult to knock out half a dozen side quests in the course of an hour, a time investment that feels more than worth the effort.

But most importantly, these quests allow you to engage with your subjects in a way that fascinatingly subverts the inherent power dynamics of your respective positions. No task is too small or demeaning for King Evan. Even when it feels like he really should have more important things to do, he faces delivering love letters or searching for missing personal items with the same enthusiasm and gravity of purpose as he does taking down a giant monster that threatens the safety of a city. This is a common discrepancy among open world games and RPGs such as this, the question of why someone burdened with such a weighty quest would waste his time helping someone with their menial, asinine shit. Rarely does this discrepancy feel so thoroughly justified as it does in Revenant Kingdom. Evan is a King that works for his people without a single thought as to what may or may not be beneath him. It’s not surprising that with such unwavering devotion, he so quickly gains such a strong following. Most of these many side characters are, in turn, funny and charming characters in their own right. Level-5 did an excellent job adding fun character and voice flourishes to the localization, and engaging in this dialogue is often its own reward, outside of whatever more tangible payments you receive.

Most of the main cast of characters outside is also well done, particularly Evan and Roland, but also the burly sky pirate Batu, who is a blast to control in combat with his giant axes and hammers, and his fierce daughter Tani. Some of the characters introduced in the latter half of the game feel a bit more like afterthoughts than the core group, but are all serviceable enough. A particularly delightful character is Evan’s Kingmaker, Lofty. All kings in this world are blessed with essentially the divine right to rule by virtue of the bonds they make with Kingmakers: towering, elegant beasts who grant their Kings with legitimacy and defend their kingdoms. Evan had one back in his home kingdom of Ding Dong Dell (just one of the many delightfully titled proper nouns to be enjoyed in this game), but once ousted, he has to go through a ceremony to get a new one for Evermore, and ends up with Lofty, a tiny, deformed-Lisa Simpson looking creature who speaks with a thick Welsh accent and the more universal dialect of sarcasm. His dialogue, like that of Drippy’s from the previous game, is one of Revenant Kingdom’s true joys.

Added to the mix is a cast of villains that make for fairly obvious, but overall successful social commentary. There’s a corrupt king who rigs the luck-based legal system of his government to ensure he always comes out on top, a secretive ruler who enforces draconian laws on her citizens, a tech-wizard CEO whose corporation has become so large it’s merged with the government and works its labor force to death, and most compellingly, Mausinger, the one who dethroned Evan. Being young and kept in the dark while he was at Ding Dong Dell, Evan was ignorant to the racial inequities of his kingdom, where humans and cat people forcibly kept economic and political power from mouse and rat people, which formed the basis for Mausinger’s coup. Evan’s reckoning with the evils of his home kingdom is one of the more fascinating story threads in the game, one I was pleasantly surprised to see delved into.

It’s one of the many moments where Revenant Kingdom eschews the black-and-white morality of most JRPGs, while nevertheless leaving questions of who the heroes are and who the villains are decidedly unambiguous. Goodness, the game implies, is the potential for improving, for recognizing one's mistakes, no matter how well-intentioned they may have been, and vowing to do better. This is a universal, all-powerful concept in the world of this game. It may be intentionally reductive, a childishly and fantastically simple solution to humanity’s history of injustice, but the message rings shockingly true. Maybe in a more nuanced age of history, that truthfulness might have felt just a bit hollow, but the bluntness of it lends it a quality that for 2018, feels critical. It’s the militantly good-willed, all-out assault of optimism that we could really all use right now.

8.7

[degreeprojectjg]

Photographs Reflection

As I’m about to enter competitions and various open calls. I thought it was time to organise a small collection of photographs that were the strongest in terms of creating a narrative and showcase the project cohesively and individually. I don’t want to just pick the best images but I want photographs that communicate the most appropriate message for the project. 

I didn’t want to sequence the images chronologically, since I wanted to leave the work to be ambiguous in it’s narrative. For me, what was more important was that the photographs should be able to create a narrative arc that carries the reader from the first page to the last. I wanted the collection to have a thematic sense of my identity, it would inform the audience of my identity but also be mindful in it’s approach to not being too obvious. 

Gurkha Beret

For the opening image, the photo above is a striking and compelling image as it informs you of the project. It’s a metaphorical image such as the Gurkha hat hanging on the bed post is more appropriate as it provides an enigmatic introduction to the project. As the observer progresses through the project the meaning will become less ambiguous and narrative clearer.

Taku, Gorkha

For my landscape images, I picked the photographs, see above and below. For the image above (Taku, Gorkha), I thin the photograph works as an effective image near the start of the collection since it informs you of the setting, it’s an establishing shot which informs you of where the project is based and what the landscape means to the project. The photograph is quite hazy and soft which is a running look of the project which suggests a dream like sense of nostalgic experiences. 

UK

I picked the image above as it suggests a metaphorical and subject change in the project which hints at migration, moving away from the place previously shown. The sea represents UK, as Nepal is a landlocked country. The image departs from my homeland into a new horizon. The discolouration of the sea also adds a layer of ambiguity. A further intrigue in the image is that in the distance is that you could see a ship which suggests the physical distance of myself and for what it could be my homeland in the metaphorical sense.

Aama in the garden

Mother= Aama

The two photographs above and below are the two strongest photograph of my mother. They both are visually striking and compelling.  The use of black and white worked really well as it shows the  figure of my mother, making her seem prominent in the photographs. Although the photographs seem straightforward, they are photographs with a strong  framework of exploration of my mother’s identity and my very own, of my home  and what it means with careful examination of it.

Mero Aaama

My mother= Mero aama

The image feels quite nostalgic. It’s a representation of how I see my other or  how I’ve seen her throughout the years. My mother is a prominent figure in my identity, she has transcended the ideas of Nepalese identity throughout my life. The photographs seems like romanticised ideas of my mother, it’s how I see her, striking and dominant whilst also it depicts a soft, delicate overview.

The portraits of my mother evoke the questioning of home, my very own sense of belonging and  identity since I began my life with her. My identity started from her.  Photographing my mother is a way of confronting my identity and it’s a way to  build it as well. It’s this strong urge to preserve my Nepalese identity that drives me as I attempt to rekindle my relationship. The whole project has been a way of creating a  sense of attachment to my Nepalese identity but also my separation from them. 

Ex Soldier 

The ‘Gurkha Beret’ image introduces you to the theme of the project whilst the photographs (see above and below) hones in on the owner of the hat. I picked these two photographs as they reflect a sense of nostalgia as my father wears his beret which he hasn’t worn in a long time, which just about still fits him.

Baba

Father= Baba

I picked the photograph above as my father appear prominent as his figure is authoritative and bold. Whilst the previous photograph offers a closer insight on my father, this photograph makes my father appear more physical and dominant which suggests his involvement in the project and my life.

These images of my father are quite important in the project as I explore the notion of being a ‘Nepalese man’. In the project, there are some universal themes of having a sense of belonging and  questioning of identity. Through the portraits, I’m confronting the notion of being a Nepalese man, they’re my ideas of a Nepalese man. 

Aama ra Baba

Mother and father= Aama ra Baba

Since the collection / sequence didn’t two subjects in one. I included the image above as it suggests togetherness and it’s quite informative in the sense of adding a narrative to the project. The image depicts the two prominent figures of my life where they are seen to be wearing traditional Nepalese / Gurung dress against the backdrop of my homeland. My father is not wearing the full Gurung dress which can suggests the influence of eastern lifestyle as he wears his jumper and jeans.

Baje

Grandfather= Baje

For more variety in the sequence, I decided to include my grand father in the project which is a major influence in the project. He’s a very important figure in both my life and my parents. I chose the image above as it doesn’t give too much away, it’s very simple the image seems off with it’s off kilter composition. My grandfather appears striking yet grounded which suggests his character. By choosing a simple photograph, I want the viewers to interpret themselves my relationship with this man and others.

Boy in the hill

I wanted to sequence to be playful with it’s subject matter. I chose the image above as it’s anonymous, I have captioned the image as ‘Boy in the hill’ which plays with that idea. It may hint at the viewer that it’s a self portrait, it’s very ambiguous in that sense. I really like the warm tones of the image, it’s quite revealing in that sense yet feels distant as the subjects are far away. The boy in the distance overlooking the hill can suggest a nostalgic viewpoint. 

Ghar

House= Ghar

The reason I chose the image above is that it depicts our home in the UK which is quite reminiscent of Nepal with it’s evergreen nature of the garden and the love for which suggests affiliation with nature which is prominent in the landscapes of Nepal. The image has a soft evening light, hinting a peaceful time which is accentuated by the use of soft, pastel colours with warm tones. The image balances and warms the sequence.

Aaam ko Maala

Mother’s necklace= Aama ko Maala

The images above, below and beneath it suggests a nostalgic view upon the Nepalese culture, the images gives you soft glimpses of the objects in my house in UK which informs and reminds you of my identity despite the migration. The images works effectively in the sense that it acts as a memorophilia.

Puja

(Place to) Worship= Puja

Nepalese Calender

Homeland

I chose the image in the sense which it acts as a metaphorical image in which it depicts a reflective outlook on the project, it doesn’t provide with you any setting or clues to where the place might be. It just silently offers you a glimpse of my life and my introspective moment, thus the image balances the sequence, taking you back to a reflective standpoint. 

Overview

As most competitions that I wanted to enter required maximum photographs of 15, I compiled 15 of the photographs that not only were strong images but they were images that worked effectively together to create a narrative around my identity.

Personal Intake

The project explores intimacy, distance, and often tensions between my torn identity. I wanted to bring out these themes in the sequence. I also wanted to sequence it visually with similar colours, subject and form but I didn’t focus too much on this as it would detract the audience from the narrative. Although the photographs are quire straightforward in terms of creating a narrative, the photographs remain ambiguous and metaphorical. There isn’t one way to sequence images. It’s entirely subjective, the project comes from me and is about me, I have a story and this is what I want to tell, this was my approach to the sequencing. It’s not the best (aesthetic) images that communicate the most appropriate message. I simply hope to make my audience understand the context in which the work will be viewed.

Reference

Magnum Photos. 2020. The Language Of Pictures: Exploring Sequencing With Mark Power • Magnum Photos. [online] Available at: <https://www.magnumphotos.com/theory-and-practice/mark-power-the-language-of-pictures-exploring-sequencing/> [Accessed 17 April 2020].