Gateway Final Project
At the beginning of the semester we were assigned a project to create a lifeline of six significant events. As a closing out to our Gateway experience, our final project was to creatively display one more significant event or revelation that had occurred during the course of the semester. I chose the revelation or transition from high school to college, focusing on the struggle and joy I have found in leaving the world of art and dance for the world of engineering. I chose to display this through a series of conceptual photos. Conceptual photography is the art of displaying an idea in one shot, and my inspiration for this kind of a project came from a high school AP English project. Displayed as the first picture, myself and the three girls in the photos following modeled for our friend's english project. His project was to display a controversial topic in a picture to accompany an essay about said topic. The picture shown illustrates how culture and technology are crushing innocence. My friends and I are the innocence trapped between the closing walls of culture and technology. Since my revelation was much more difficult to capture in one picture, I decided to capture five branches of my over all transition revelation in six shots.
The significance begins with who I had model for my photography, the three girls I chose are my best friends, and they can be seen in the header of this web page. The first two shots are my little sister, because one of the most difficult things has been living away from home and especially Annika, who is one of my best friends. The first picture is Annika walking over a bridge. The concept here is very simple, crossing the bridge not only represents moving from Kentucky to Ohio but it also represents changing from South Oldham High School and moving on to the University of Cincinnati. Annika’s second picture is her at a crossroads. She is standing at the brink of the fork and doesn’t seem to know which path to choose. The two paths represent all the new choices that are coming very quickly in college. Annika being all alone represents a new aspect in my life, the decisions that are coming so rapid fire are largely my own choices. They are things that will largely impact only me; this is new considering I am beginning to be independent. The next two pictures are my friend Maddie, Maddie is a really good friend from dance and both of her pictures represent some of the joys I have found at UC. The picture of her on a swing represents an angel or a butterfly growing new wings. While parts of moving to college have been difficult, I really think that I have grown into the transition. Maddie’s second picture is her throwing leaves. Throwing leaves is something I associate with pure joy and happiness, because what little kid didn’t throw leaves? The joy shown in the picture is representative of the happiness I have found in learning and living life to the fullest. The final two pictures are of my best friend, Rachael. Rachael and I danced together for 12 years, and have been best friends for nearly as long. Rachael’s first picture is her surrounded by words and symbols. The words are either ballet terms or math/science terms. This is to represent the two different worlds I have been trying to find ways to merge into my final career. I want to still be a part of the dance world that has defined so much of my life up to this point, but I also want to continue with math and science through engineering. Rachael’s second picture represents this same idea in a different way. The last picture is only her feet. One of her shoes is a pointe shoe, meant to represent dance, and the other shoe is a Converse, meant to represent the life of a student.
Through these six shots, I hope to convey a sense that while the transition to college has been hard and has brought a lot of change, overall it has been good changes. I also hope to convey that while I had to leave the dance world behind, I am still hoping to one day bring it back into my life, and find a way to merge the engineer and the dancer.
The significance begins with who I had model for my photography, the three girls I chose are my best friends, and they can be seen in the header of this web page. The first two shots are my little sister, because one of the most difficult things has been living away from home and especially Annika, who is one of my best friends. The first picture is Annika walking over a bridge. The concept here is very simple, crossing the bridge not only represents moving from Kentucky to Ohio but it also represents changing from South Oldham High School and moving on to the University of Cincinnati. Annika’s second picture is her at a crossroads. She is standing at the brink of the fork and doesn’t seem to know which path to choose. The two paths represent all the new choices that are coming very quickly in college. Annika being all alone represents a new aspect in my life, the decisions that are coming so rapid fire are largely my own choices. They are things that will largely impact only me; this is new considering I am beginning to be independent. The next two pictures are my friend Maddie, Maddie is a really good friend from dance and both of her pictures represent some of the joys I have found at UC. The picture of her on a swing represents an angel or a butterfly growing new wings. While parts of moving to college have been difficult, I really think that I have grown into the transition. Maddie’s second picture is her throwing leaves. Throwing leaves is something I associate with pure joy and happiness, because what little kid didn’t throw leaves? The joy shown in the picture is representative of the happiness I have found in learning and living life to the fullest. The final two pictures are of my best friend, Rachael. Rachael and I danced together for 12 years, and have been best friends for nearly as long. Rachael’s first picture is her surrounded by words and symbols. The words are either ballet terms or math/science terms. This is to represent the two different worlds I have been trying to find ways to merge into my final career. I want to still be a part of the dance world that has defined so much of my life up to this point, but I also want to continue with math and science through engineering. Rachael’s second picture represents this same idea in a different way. The last picture is only her feet. One of her shoes is a pointe shoe, meant to represent dance, and the other shoe is a Converse, meant to represent the life of a student.
Through these six shots, I hope to convey a sense that while the transition to college has been hard and has brought a lot of change, overall it has been good changes. I also hope to convey that while I had to leave the dance world behind, I am still hoping to one day bring it back into my life, and find a way to merge the engineer and the dancer.