Inspiration:
Ever since I was a little girl I have surrounded myself with images and objects that represent all the things that I want to experience and accomplish in my life. At one point my walls were covered with images of dancers and inspiring quotes from famous ballerinas such as Isadora Duncan, whose quote said “You were wild once. Don’t let them tame you.” My room décor consisted of porcelain dolls, flowers, theatrical masks, and countless little boxes with the word “Paris” written on them in cursive.
This summer while cleaning out my
It was because of my observation that I came up with a title for this project, “Everywhere I go, I see Paris.” However, Paris was not the only reoccurring destination in sight. As I continued to look around the room, I also saw many trinkets with boxy letters that read “London” and others that read “Rome.” So naturally, in honor of these other locations, I have decided to leave the title of this project slightly open ended.
As an aspiring photographer and filmmaker, I decided to infuse different elements of the two professions into these miniature scenes, giving each set up a taste of myself and what I am working to accomplish today.
©AliciaM
Image: Everywhere I go, I see.....
Art School Lessons:
One of the biggest struggles I’ve faced as an art student is that the size of my ideas don’t always match with the size of my wallet. I can dream up many fantastic scenarios, and I may even know how I would like to accomplish them, but one of the biggest hoops that I repeatedly jump through is figuring out how I am going to piece the project together with what I have readily available to me. Sometimes this can be a frustrating process, having to downsize a lot of the ideas I have. But it’s also a great exercise, considering that with obstacles you are forced to be even more creative in figuring out how your vision will come together. Like any other project I began this one with a pre-production phase in which I spend hours hunting and gathering all of the little bits and pieces that will make up my scenes. This project turned out to be a bigger challenge than I had originally anticipated.
©AliciaM
Image: Everywhere I go, I see London
Miniature Still Life:
My original idea was to create small scale replicas of famous cityscapes using various objects such as boxes, candles, and other “at home” decorations. The project would consist of three famous locations that I’ve been dreaming of visiting since I was young. However, my budget wouldn’t support such a big project, I was on a school deadline, and I didn’t have the skills needed to create such an extravagant set. So instead of recreating the locations, I decided to make my own type of landscape. One that focused more on my personal dreams as a photographer and film maker. This made the project more personal than I had originally intended it to be since it was combining parts of who I am with different recognizable items of the locations I had chosen.
Location: For each of the locations I rented a studio where I had three hours to get equipment, prep the set, light, shoot, and start all over for the next location.
Wardrobe: My miniatures were shot separately from the still life shoots. Each outfit was chosen to reflect different aspects of the locations that I was going to be placed in. London, England has a serious military like flare to it. Rome, Italy appears more carefree and adventures, and Paris, France
Set Design: Each location was created from scratch with items that came from my house. My main concern was where to place my miniature people. I thought up a mental map of where the items should be in order to have a place for each body, and so that each body would have an appropriate gesture for that particular spot. I wanted the relationship of the miniature places and the bodies to look cohesive.
©AliciaM
Image: Everywhere I go, I see Paris
Lighting: I chose a very even, diffused lighting setup for all the sets in order for all of the pieces to be visible and appreciated by an audience. If I were to shoot this project again (with more time), I would design different lighting diagrams for each location based on the different light characteristics of each location.
Post Production: Post production made up a large portion of the project. Figuring out where to place the bodies and what they were saying to move the story forward was of importance as well as creating effects that captured the uniqueness of each location. The color palettes, textures, and extra drawings in the images were chosen to help sell the location and capture the energy of each place.
Personal Emotional Response: I had a blast making this project. Like I said, it did present many challenges and the project underwent various changes, but in the
Audience Emotional Response: I hope that people enjoy what they see in the images. There are many bits and pieces in the images that help tell more of a story. I like to call them miniature nuggets. Each object has a meaning and represents something about me or about the location. The objects will tell you who I want to be, what I want to accomplish, and where I want to go. Just look closely and you will see.
©AliciaM
Image: Everywhere I go, I see Rome
This was the biggest composite of the series, but unfortunately I lost all of the layers due to a computer glitch when the file was saved.
Credits:
Photography & Retouching: Alicia M. Blair
Prop & Set Design: Susana Blair
A special thanks to this lovely lady who always makes sense of my ideas and brings me back to reality, no matter how hard I may resist. Thank you for your extra hustle and support
To see the completed series, please follow the link below.
http://www.aliciamblairphotography.com/everywhere-i-go-i-see
Alicia M. Blair