Final Project Progress

   The following images are part of what I have been working on for my final project. I have three projects I am working on concurrently, so the goal of this week is to decide on which project will become my final. The recent weather has been a challenge for one of my projects, so this post features some images from two of my three projects.

   The first project (which takes up a majority of this post) is one I have tentatively titled Neon Noir. This series of images started as a project I was working on separate from an assignment in class. My goal was to study a photographer that I admired and try to emulate what I liked about their work. However, this quickly evolved from studying one specific photographer into studying an entire trend in photography known as cyberpunk or outrun photography. This style of art and photography has recently become extremely popular with the rise of Vaporwave music and the recently released Blade Runner 2049 film. The typical cyberpunk photograph draws heavily from the aesthetic of the film; they are usually nighttime street images that feature some form of neon and a cyan/magenta-heavy color palette. Photographer Steve Roe is the person I originally set out to study with this project because of his use of a fractal prism. By using these prisms while shooting, one can distort the neon signs in ways that can be truly mesmerizing. The majority of his photographs are taken in Seoul, Hong Kong, or Tokyo where neon is very present. So, this project requires that I do a bit of neon hunting to achieve the look. Although this project started as something separate from my final, I am so happy with the way these look that I am really considering continuing it further and printing them for the symposium. 

   The last two images are part of my series on areas in the Northwest that are a little creepy, supposedly haunted, or have some form of urban legend attached to it. I have created a list of places to go shoot that fit this criteria within a four hour distance, and Gravity Hill outside of Prosser is the one I was able to check out first. Located next to an abandoned grain elevator, an optical illusion that makes this hill seem like gravity works in reverse has been blamed on the paranormal. I plan on visiting this location again because I was not able to go until it was pitch black outside, and I did not have my tripod with me.

   Both of these projects are fun to work on because they give me an excuse to go out and adventure a little bit. However, the travel is also going to be the hardest part of these series. Regardless of which series I decide to use for my final project, I plan on completing both of them within the next couple of weeks.