Idea for Aphorism 16: A cage went in search of a bird.

by jamesrunacres

 

My idea for Kafka’s 16th aphorism was to have nude self portrait of me holding a mirror which would reflect what I actually wanted to look like. To the right of me I was planning on having a naked female facing the camera lens in quite a confident position which will be juxtaposed next to my insecure self. This photograph proved to be the most difficult to take, due to the arrangements behind it. I was able to get the room I needed for a couple of hours for the idea, so I was able to take the self portraiture of myself. I was unable to get the mirror that I wanted for the same day, therefore, instead of facing the camera I turned my back to the camera and posed vulnerably. I feel the back turned to the camera speaks more about my emotions and feelings and the shadows which darken my body make for quite a strong image. Finding a girl to pose naked for a photo has proved to be incredibly difficult. I was able to get someone to agree to let me but they were unavailable before the hand in date for the test photos. To replace this, I chose to include a female eye subtlety positioned in the window where the naked female would have been positioned. Whilst I think this creates a strong image, it doesn’t deal with the aphorism as well as a girl would.

Reflection and things I can improve on

The self portraiture took ages to do and even after trying for a while I still didn’t achieve the picture I wanted. I was unable to achieve a long exposure time to blur my face, like I wanted to do in the previous idea. The location for the photograph is perfect, and I will go back there to try and achieve my aims for my self portraiture. For the portraiture of the naked female, I will use the studio and the lighting as I feel the professional background will help me achieve the lighting I want on her body to juxtapose against mine. I think for the final photograph I will not use the idea of the mirror and instead, have my back to the camera as I feel it deals with idea of showing my insecurities a lot better.