Above and Below
Description:
Above and Below is a visual representation of how human life moves everyday. With the inspirational image being "The Great Salt Lake Basin" by Gary Vann, it was very important to capture his message into the same medium that he used, so that this project could emulate its own message. Everyone today is constantly minding their own business and carrying on with their everyday lives, they lack the perspective to look above and beyond their average 24 hour day. With millions upon millions of people making up this country, we need to realize that there are so many issues that we are fortunate enough not to face today, but other have to painfully go through. With migration being something that we hear in our everyday vocabulary, we don't fully understand the journey that these immigrants go through just to start their dreams in America. To showcase my perspective of "being above" and seeing how people migrate from one place to another, I thought it would be interesting to add the original artwork on three posters that make you feel like you are actually doing the migrating yourself. These three posters are trying to achieve that feeling of you walking around and looking at your surroundings as if you are on a long journey. Having the three posters really also play into the title of "below" in the sense of walking around a vast part of the United States and looking around the abandoned areas where you need to walk through to get to your dreams at the end of the road.
The Process:
My process for this project was definitely unorthodox compared to others. Originally I truly did believe that this whole entire project was going to be about religion in art and how light represents the good in the world, the mid tones represented where we stand in life, and the darkness representing those who have been consumed by the unknown. Over the course of a couple of weeks and many late night readings, it was crucial that I needed to look beyond the meaning and look at what the original inspiration for this image was. Gary Vann was trying to promote what he would call a "struggle" in life. He was trying to showcase the "eternal struggles" of the natural world and how we all suffer the basic human problems. Throughout studying his piece, I wanted to take this idea and translate it to other human life and showcase what people go through just to achieve their dreams. Their dreams could be anything, anywhere, or to be anyone. Even though you can dream, to achieve a dream, everything you work for will lead up to that point eventually.
Inspiration Image:
Welcome, emigrants - The Great Salt Lake Basin. – Works – eMuseum. (1970, January 1). Retrieved December 4, 2021, from https://escalettecollection.chapman.edu/objects/961/welcome-emigrants--the-great-salt-lake-basin?ctx=d85b6e51bacc68d185c1fc374751e1b9fc834c0a&idx=4.
Bibliography:
A psychology of immigration - utopia. (n.d.). Retrieved December 4, 2021, from http://utopia.duth.gr/~xsakonid/index_htm_files/1_5_2015_Sapountzis_Berry_paper.pdf.
Collins, B. (2019, January 10). Symbolism of black-and-white photography. Our Pastimes. Retrieved December 4, 2021, from https://ourpastimes.com/symbolism-of-black-and-white-photography-12597173.html.
The history and beauty of black and white photography. Art of Headshots Photography Studios. (2020, March 11). Retrieved December 4, 2021, from https://artofheadshots.com/history-beauty-black-white-photography/.
Google. (n.d.). The death of josseline. Google Books. Retrieved December 4, 2021, from https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Death_of_Josseline/sB92MDu_OK8C?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=immigration%2Bstories&pg=PT5&printsec=frontcover.
Welcome, emigrants - The Great Salt Lake Basin. – Works – eMuseum. (1970, January 1). Retrieved December 4, 2021, from https://escalettecollection.chapman.edu/objects/961/welcome-emigrants--the-great-salt-lake-basin?ctx=d85b6e51bacc68d185c1fc374751e1b9fc834c0a&idx=4.