Redefining the Image

Many pictures include all five elements, the thing itself, detail, frame, time, and vantage point. Mine falls into a few. When I was trying to start this project I could not decide on what to create. So I decided to choose something that I create naturally every morning when I wake up. My makeup desk. Every day I clean that area, but sometimes when I am in a rush, I leave behind a mess of an area. I was looking at it thinking its just clutter, but then I realized it is something that I created without even trying. It reminded me of an image in an ISpy book. So I thought, “I’m going to go with that”.

I feel that my desk in a sense includes, time, frame, and the thing itself (many things). I think it incorporates time, because this was created at a certain point in the day and I was done creating it once I left for work. It is about a moment in time where I was rushing to be somewhere. It looks very rushed to me. I think if it wasn’t my desk, I would see it representing a, “busy” lifestyle. When it comes to frame I feel that the image itself is the frame and your eyes go all the way from the center and out all the way to the edge when looking at it. And the thing itself is everything in the picture. The thing is everything in a sense.

Although I only included a few in my “photograph”, John Szarkowski has five categories.