Assignment 6: Conceptual Portraiture

The topic this time was to come up with a concept and take a series of 6-10 pictures of what we know as conceptual photography. I found the idea of conceptual photography very wide because you can take very common scenes and call it conceptual photography if there is a deeper meaning underlying the actual images.

The theme given was " Everday living". I wanted to do something representative of the world. Perhaps like the depletion of resources by our daily consumption. I thought of representing consumption in various ways, like perhaps a lot of shopping or just piling a lot of waste in a room around my subject. But after a while, I decided to really make my subject 'eat' all these daily objects which represents the amount of resources we are using up.



This first picture is based on the feasting on power. Man have been troubled over the depleting fuels on the planet. Yet we continue to feast on energy, represented by the batteries in the picture. The subject, throughout this series is supposed to look relatively happy consuming these 'items', just like how Man is happily consuming all the resources.



This 2nd picture shows how man likes to take up a lot of time. Time is yet another resource that is often neglected. The more time we take to solve an issue, the more the time has been wasted in the process. I wanted to use the analog clock to show how we have been wastefully taking up too much time.



In this picture, I try to position the communication tool in such a position that it is a main course, a part of our life that we cannot run away from. Like it or not, communication technology have become a deep part of our lives and we cannot live without it. Thus, instead of positioning the mobile phone as a snack or a little titbit, I prefer to position it as something which looks like a main course, something that we have to 'consume' everyday.



Portable technology is also very important in our society. In all the cafes around Singapore , it is very common to spot at least a few laptops around and people doing work on them. I wanted to portray the laptop as a portable snack, and the key point to this is to show mobility. Thus, the portrayal of the laptop as a sandwich.



In this one, I waned to show how cultures or different ways of eating might not affect what is consumed. Be it in America, Singapore or even China, the consumption of the iPod is very significant. The little music player had globalised these countries under its reign. Even in Asian countries who uses chopsticks, the iPod can be 'consumed'.



In the current world, light is everywhere. It is taken for granted that in the mall, in the school or anywhere you are, you assume that when night falls there will be light to light up your way. This is why I decided to put the lightbulb as a snack, something small to be eaten anywhere ,any time.



The last one is where the CDs represents stored information. They are like light titbits that we consume everyday, be it via Internet, reading or looking through databases for information. We consumer information everyday to such an extent that it is becoming an addictive snack, similar to a donut which was what I was trying to portray in the picture.