Assignment 5: Depicting Moods

I liked this assignment the best out of all the previous ones. I could take any photograph that I think would fit nicely to the theme and everything was up to me to decide. I love this form of creative freedom.

I went out on a photography trip to look for inspiration. There were several guidelines given for this assignment though, such as no human or animals or toys should be used in the photograph to express emotions.

Thinking that a lot of people would either go to very dark and solemn places to get sad or depressing photograph, I went off to one of my favourite haunts at Clarke Quay to get some photographs that shouts 'ME'.

There was a purple flower that was found along the Singapore River. I decided to take it because it sends out this overall aura of peacefulness. The flower's long slim petals fades into the background as I had a shallow depth of field. The dark background from the shade of the tree covering the area was good as it created a dark backgound contrasting with the soft peaceful colour of the flower. It silently shouts... serenity.



Then, I went to have lunch. I got inspired halfway through lunch to take a picture of my steaming bowl of ramen. But it looked kind of messy with the noodles inside, so I finished my lunch and took a picture of the empty bowl. I thought such an empty bowl shows the satisfaction everyone will understand after a meal. Thus I named it Simple Satisfaction of Life.



I wanted mess and it was very difficult to find good messes that do not consist of cluttered things made up by Man. Thus I found these wires poking out of a crack in the ground. I used this to represent the mess that hides beneath the simple plain surface of the ground. The world might not be as simple as it is. Especially now where the world is getting more and more 'connected', this wires might just reveal the electronic chaos that lies beneath.



Then there was this donut shop which sells donuts that are about only 5cm wide. I bought a box of it and went to look for a place with better lighting indoors to take a photograph. I wanted to take the pictures of these donuts because they are such simple food, dough fried and dipped in various coatings to give different flavours. So simple and yet when you bite into one, it is sheer happiness.



After this whole project, I found that emotions need not be something that must be expressed by human expressions. How the object is placed, what kind of lighting is used, the angle of the camera affects the mood that it conveys. The composition of the photograph, what is the nature of the object being photographed plays an important role int the emotions that surface in the viewer of the picture.