Digital Photographics Project One

PLACE Katherine Emma Ng

The narrative thread that ties together the photographs in this series is a sense of containment which describes the separation of the private and the communal in a living situation such as a student flat. Like the photographs of several of my artist models, the photographs are devoid of any human presence, and any traces of human activity are only quietly implied. The compositions are carefully framed and constructed, drawing attention to what the space depicted can tell us about the ways in which we carefully construct and define boundaries between public and private space.

01. The balance and near-symmetry of this photo help to convey the sterility and impersonal atmosphere of this communal space, while the coloured light and ajar door hint at the private spaces hidden behind closed doors, inaccessible to the viewer.

02. In this photograph, the rays of light projecting out across the walls and floor from the bedroom doors seem to represent the private lives that the rooms contain. This use of light as representative of human presence is a sort of inverse to the use of shadow in the above photograph by one of my artist models, David Claerbout.

03. This photo subverts the idea of a window, showing how containing our homes can be – containing our private lives and hiding them from the world. Rather than framing the outside world, this window only offers us a view into another window, and another beyond that. Little is revealed of the outside world or the contents of the house.

04. In this photo there is a sense of the outside world creeping in,  despite attempts to keep it out through use of the curtain. This is captured in the strong contrast between the outdoor light and the shadowy interior. This use of contrast and bright exterior light can be seen in several of my artist models. (above: Mauricio Guillen, below: Alec Soth, Luisa Lambri).

05. The influence of Alec Soth can directly be seen in this photo. As with this photo, Soth’s photographs are simple in their composition but small hints of life are quietly present. Despite their pared-back simplicity, Soth’s photographs convey a lot about the space, as does this photo – the high ceilings, the towel and dressing gown and the broken lock all begin to hint at the existence of an absent person – a sense similar to that conveyed in the above photo by Soth.

06. The light creeping out from behind the door indicates signs of human life which are mysterious to us as we are stuck in the shadowy ‘dead space’ of the foreground, denied access by the door. In both the composition’s simplicity and the evocativeness of the partly open door, this photo can be compared to the work of one of my artist models, Luisa Lambri.

DEVELOPMENT, OUTCOMES & FINAL THOUGHTS

In both these and Alec Soth’s photos human activity is only hinted at, but while Soth implies human presence through objects, in my photos light plays a bigger part in communicating this. As the series came together, light became more and more important in the photos, with contrasts between light and shadow signifying the mysterious and unknown (the unknown being our private lives and spaces). Because of the simplicity of how I’ve chosen to depict the space, taking a number of photos without being too repetitive was challenging so I think the final combination of detail shots with medium and long shots helps to counteract any repetitiveness, while ensuring that all of the photos fit together to communicate the narrative of the series.