Reflection:
I think the technique I used best in this project was leading lines. I experimented a lot with this technique and using it to attempt to convey the feelings of certain spaces. Generally I used these lines to accentuate the grand size and scale of the stage or, alternatively, the odd and cramped nature of certain spaces.
Some of my favorite photos from this project are the shots backstage of scenery and props coming together for the upcoming show. It was really cool to capture how they were just laid out and left there in a jumble. It was also awesome how the ground plans for the set were left laid out next to them completely organically, that whole scene just felt so cool to stumble upon. As I mentioned in class I expected my location to be very static and I worried that might lead to photos without a story, but seeing things change as I went back to the theatre to take more photos was really fascinating. It also created an emerging story for me as well as I went back and got to see how the production was progressing.
One thing I would revise about this project is including people in some way. I didn’t know where I was going to go with my story at first but with how it turned out it would have been really helpful to have had some people to talk about and would have given me more opportunities for personal stories. This would have taken a lot more time to accomplish, though and didn’t really work out schedule-wise. Something else I would have done is acquire some kind of portable light to bring with me. One of my biggest challenges with this project obviously was taking photos in extreme darkness and that would have helped to alleviate that some. I took on this challenge intentionally because I thought it would be interesting and it definitely led to some very cool photos in my opinion but also really limited from what angles I could capture things and led to the composition of some of my shots being a bit wonky.
I was inspired by the demo projects of Phoebe Ackor and Caramon Cotroneo and the way they photographed interior spaces. I tried to emulate their strategies as well as the moody theme especially in phoebe’s case in my project.