I hope you guys can view this image big enough.
Basically I'm making a "book" with pages that are going to be on a stand, and all the pages will be separate. You'll be able to flip the pages over and sort of mix and match the couples I've interviewed. I've used their answers and picked out interesting statements, hardly changing any words. I also wanted to show the good and bad parts of their relationship, or negative and positive really, so the reader could sort of make up their mind who had more power in the relationship. It could also be fun to try and match up the couples because I'll be hanging up the pictures out of order. I feel like I'm rambling and hope this is all making sense. I decided not to hang the couples up next to eachother because I thought it would be more interesting to have two dominant or two passive people next to eachother/ sort of see what happens when they're by different people and if/how you view them differently. Let me know any suggestions/better ways you would go about this!
Thanks,
Olivia
Olivia,
ReplyDeleteI love the way you set these up! I really like the picture with text behind. Is the text straight dialogue or have you changed it at all? I think either way, you should definitely add as much text as you can. Maybe even have some lines that lay behind the image, so that you can only see part of it. It will give some "mystery" to the pieces- which represents the relationship itself. You never really know everything your partner is thinking on the inside (which you investigated). Just a thought. But they look great! I can't wait to see the final result.
Ah LOVE this idea...I think its really interesting becaus these people seem like such individuals. I would think that these people are good matches for each other. However, by giving the reader the power to mix and match their stories, its a really interesting power you're giving the reader.
ReplyDeleteThe photography is really great here too. I feel like this book will be interesting to look at as well as read.
As Mandy said, the idea of physically representing the mystery of relationships is a really interesting idea too. Great job so far!
Love the concept, Olivia! The photos are crisp and the black and white contrast to them is a smart choice; there's something unifying about draining the color out of people and placing them in a grayscale setting. It could be considered a subtle nod to power dynamics, too, everything reduced to varying shades of two sides, pulled one way or the other... but that's a bit of a creative stretch. :P A better reason? B&W is going to be much less expensive when you print all these out for your book!
ReplyDeleteYou say you're going to mix and match the pages and allow the reader to do the same, shuffling up couples and guessing which ones 'belong' together. I was wondering if you'll have some means for the reader to determine the proper relationships and validating/invalidating their assumptions? Maybe a matching symbol on the back of each image, or an index in the front or back cover of the book with the page order listed. While I think being able to see different connections and associations based on random pairings is a fascinating concept (kind of gets into what we were talking about in class, perceptive reality: By pairing two photos together and connecting their texts, we're creating our own version of reality, an instance in which these two individuals have a relationship with one another, something that may or may not be true outside of our own imagination), being able to explore the different perceptions that the actual couple had with one another is something that shouldn't be lost.
Voicing an 'amen' on the Mandy comment as well - I like the simplicity of the photos as they are now, and you don't want to overcrowd them with text - but playing with the spacial organization of that text could be a means of expressing aspects of the relationships. Does text higher on the page have more meaning to the individual? Does text near the mouth, or the eye, or the heart, change the meaning of what is being said? Does the order of these collections of phrases effect meaning? Some things to consider for future pages.
Great idea. It's creative. It's interesting to me to think of how the meaning may change depending on how the reader chooses to manipulate the "real" ordering as well as how the the text interacts with the images. The images great and I'll second the black and white. It's an interesting touch that I'd imagine a lot of people might not have considered, but it occurs to me that it might be more effective. I don't have any clue how to describe it... power dynamics? Maybe color as well sways our interpretation. I appreciate the visual aspect though. It just makes it more... real, and I can see it playing upon a reader's conception of what's "right" and what connects and what ought to go together.
ReplyDeleteAnd of course the actual placement provides a unique avenue to vary things and manipulate the way the words work, in something so big and complex and unspoken as relationships, no less.
I think this is a good idea, to set the couples apart from one another. But how will the viewer ever know who actually goes with who? Maybe there is an answer sheet, or on the back of each picture you say who their partner is. I only say this because I think it will be confusing to see the juxtaposed power struggle if the viewer never ends up knowing who is with who. But, nonetheless, I think you should separate them to allow people to think about the person as a individual but then at the end, show who is with who.
ReplyDelete