PHOTOGRAPHY SERIES: PRIDE THROUGH DOUBLE EXPOSURE

Pride is rather a deep subject to talk about so soon after launching my website and then blog. However, this series was the last major project of my second year at Grace College, so I figured it deserved some attention, at least from me. My prof for this class, Prof Croy, allowed us to shoot anything we wanted. I knew that I wanted to do self portraits, I just needed to find a way to do it in an different and interesting way. My inspiration came in part from looking online and from my own work, as you can see from my Double Exposure project. I finally settled on the idea of pride and how it follows me around and taints every aspect of my life. I have two figures in each photograph: The first is in color and is the everyday Rusty. He is the me that does daily life. The second figure is a ghost figure which represents pride. He is a ghost because no one else can see him, and sometimes even the real person cannot see him. 

There are two photographs in the series I would like to mention briefly. The first is Pride in Recreation. I wanted to talk about it not because it has so much to do with pride (though too often we as Americans pride ourselves in our leisure), but because of the way Art History impacted this shot. Art History? Art History is boring! At the same time that I was shooting this series I was also taking my second art history course. It could be a drag, but I learned so much about composition, color, line and use of photography as a medium that it shows in this shot. It took me a while to get the curve of the ball I wanted, but in the end I was quite pleased with it. 

The second picture I will comment on is the final picture in the series. It made a good end to the series but I did not care for it as much artistically. It ties the series together, showing both the loss of hope when being constantly surrounded by pride and the hope that faith brings. It depicts the real Rusty surrounded by a bunch of ghosts who look at him. I will be honest here and say there were supposed to be more ghosts, but both my camera's batteries were flat. Always learning! On the ground behind Rusty there is a huge t that looks like a cross. Jesus' cross is the only place we can look for liberty from our sin. And Rusty is leaning on a big rock, another of Jesus' names. 

I hope you enjoyed this series. Let me know in the comments what you think! Take a look in the Portraits section for other pictures in this series!