Kaitlin Elisabeth Case

 Dream of Californication

In my photos, I wanted to depict her most apparent character traits. To me, those are categorized as hard working, independent, adventurous, and laid back. Within my four prints I wanted to demonstrate a mix of these. She wants to be her own boss and be as playful as possible within such a serious work force so we wanted to depict that in one of the pictures. She is from California, and is the ultimate “California girl” which I believe is where her laid back side comes from and I wanted to capture that. She’s independent and confident in her area of study, and also willing to do anything that’s an adventure so I wanted to demonstrate those aspects as much as possible. 

I had an idea for this project but I didn’t know how to capture it in a proposal photo. And the only street pictures I have that are interesting are from a car but that isn’t how I want the book pictures to be. I had the idea to take pictures of totally different streets, and then drawing on them in the end. Like adding out of place things on to a common area (a street).

I am intrigued by reflections because of the way people interact with them and what they show. I find it interesting that in a window on a building, the reflection could show something in nature (if it were faced that way of course). It’s also interesting walking around campus and seeing people casually glance in the window of the building they’re walking past. In my proposal photo - which is really crappy because I was driving but thought he looked cool - it shows that some people blatantly stare at their own reflection even in a public building. 

I really want to explore this topic because I know what I want to say within it. This theme was the one I first thought of in the first week of class, but for all the wrong reasons. At first, I just really liked the way nature plays along with man made things. After (kind of) shooting it within my weekly photos, I’ve realized that I can connect with it. These plants (trees, flowers, bushes etc..) are placed in their element because they’re outside, but at the same time they’re entirely out of their element and have to adapt to their surroundings. I feel like thats an accurate description of this first year at U of A for me and thats what I want it to show; Being out of your element but coming together so cohesively in the end.

(progress)

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My sketch was Allie riding a skateboard and holding on to the bumper of a car for the adventurous/kid side of her, and then her seating at a business table with an angle so you see her dressed professionally, but then you also see the skateboard from the previous picture with her underneath the table to show the two sides to her.

While Hannah can be insecure, she loses all sense of insecurity when she's dancing. I want to really push the fierce presence she has on a stage through make up. That being said, my third picture would be her in the same position as the second photo but her head on the opposite side, and  there would be leopard spots painted on her back and neck and she would have a piercing expression still facing that direction. The fourth photo would be her with zero insecurities doing whatever dance move expresses who she is most while displaying the leopard make up on her.

My idea for project 1 stemmed from the idea of dystopia. I thought about who I am and decided that my idea of dystopia would be a place that was abandoned by humanity. A huge fear of mine is being the last person on Earth, so I tried to envelope the feeling that that thought brings me into these photographs. To portray this idea of an abandoned society, I shot places that would be familiar, or relatable, to my audience because they are all taken on the UA campus. Whether there are items signifying the past presence of humanity left on the ground or hung on walls, I wanted to create a sense of a lack of life in areas that would normally hold plenty of people. 

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My plan for this project is to scope out areas of Tucson that have run down houses, dark areas that feel eerie, as well as light areas that feel eerie. I want the final project to feel like the viewer is standing in an abandoned society and they’re the only one left because that is what I envision in my own dystopia.