Patterns: A Juxtaposition- Alexandra Starling and Anthea Ledwidge

MAS110 ASSIGNMENT 2

PHOTO ESSAY

Patterns: A Juxtaposition between Natural and Man Made

By Alexandra Starling 41973143

and Anthea Ledwidge 43051782

Music: Hiddeminside (23/11/2011) Another World: Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) Available at http://www.jamendo.com/en/track/873885/another-world, accessed on (2/10/12)

The creative force driving the concept of “Patterns: A Juxtaposition between Natural and Man Made”, was Susan Murray's article "Digital Images, Photo-Sharing and Our Shifting Notions of Everyday aesthetics.” My partner and I sought to encapsulate the notion of the 'Everyday Aesthetic' through hidden beauty, often overlooked due to the fast paced lifestyles in which we live. Pattern is all around us, and though pattern can be described as a deliberate repetition of a reoccurring design, we believe accidental patterns can be found almost anywhere a person looks, and often the pattern has been made not to be aesthetically pleasing, but to be functional. 

We sought to prove the unique beauty of man-made patterns, and to juxtapose them with similar images which have been sourced from nature. As Murray claims, it is possible to “locate beauty in the mundane”, (p155) and thus we utilized the macro capabilities of the camera in order to take close up photos of patterns which are normally overlooked. Our photo-shoots took place in several locations, originally in and around my home, where upon a single glance, many patterns could be noticed. It was only when we took the time to look around that we noticed the vast range of repeated designs on various mundane household objects such as wallpaper, candle holders, bubble wrap and tiled floors. 

Once a series of almost 80 photographs of various patterns in the home had been taken, we then sought to find pattern in society and buildings, such as in brick work, windows and doors. Our photographic focus then shifted to various animals, and our photo-shoot moved to Taronga Zoo. Once we had a huge compilation of photographs, we then matched photos of nature with their similar counterparts which are man-made, to create a perfect juxtaposition of images showing hidden beauty in things often overlooked, thanks to the framing and close camera angles. Our images are rich in colour and contrast, and our clever utilization of the editing software of iPhoto and iMovie allowed us to boost sharpness and definition in order to make our patterns stand out even more to the eye.

My partner and I believe that through our images, we have proven Murray's concept that photography has become less about the “special or rarefied moments of domestic living” and has become more about “ones discovery and framing of the small and mundane.” (p147)

Bibliography:
Murray, Susan, (2008) "Digital Images, Photo-Sharing and Our Shifting Notions of Everyday Aesthetics." Journal of visual culture 2008 7: 147-163