Digital Media Sketchbook #1

What I did: I tried to capture the hidden beauty in the walk I take to school every day. Namely, I chose to focus on minimalism by displaying the sterile, repetitive nature of DoBro architecture.

What worked: I'm quite satisfied with the simplicity I was able to achieve throughout the images. Brooklyn is quite chaotic, but I framed with the hope of capturing small windows of serenity.

What didn't work: As a series, the images weren't quite consistent in coloring. Particularly the sky was inconsistent from shot to shot. I also feel that keeping to only one building or shooting 5 unique buildings would have kept the similarities and differences consistent across the series.

General thoughts: I'm glad I brought out my camera to shoot this and used Raw capture because I was able to rescue a lot of lost information in the photograph, including overexposed clouds and underexposed building facades. One of the difficulties I encountered was avoiding cliches. Street photography is so ubiquitous in the Instagram era that it becomes challenging to create unique compositions or narratives. I put a particular focus on creating images that I hadn't taken before and am generally happy with the visual diversity I achieved. For future Digital Media Sketchbooks, I hope to experiment with shooting different subjects or trying experimental techniques that I don't usually shoot with.

Photographer Bios

Ben Thomas is an Australian filmmaker and photographer who captures “hyper realistic” images of his surroundings. Ben uses photography to alter the relationship that viewers have with their environment through creating surreal, pastel worlds with his photos. His iconic style has inspired many photographers in today’s world.

Roy DeCarava is a New York City photographer born in Harlem in 1919. Having lived through the Harlem Renaissance, DeCarava became fascinated with black legacy in the US. One of his primary focuses was photographing Jazz musicians at work in the recording studio. His incredibly vivid, candid photographs capture fragments of a musician’s experience.

Giles Price is a British photographer who examines environments and how humans have impacted them. This includes social movements, environmental degradation, and great endeavors. His most recent series was shot in the aftermath of Fukushima, where he photographed residents with a thermal camera to show their isolation in an empty environment.