Nature as a valued customer

 Reading the introduction of The Critical Eye I was most intrigued by Myoung Ho Lee’s motif for his work. When I first saw the tree photograph I had the assumption that, being the obvious subject matter within the composition the tree has a great sense of importance attached to it. Turns out that’s the type of feeling I believe Lee wants his viewer to have as he claims he sets up the scene to, “ focus attention on the fragility and beauty of the beings in the natural environment... as if the photographers studio had been moved outside and nature has been treated as a valued customer.” His method to achieve this effect is to place a large cloth behind the subject to highlight it from its surroundings. I thought that this idea and the execution of it is quite meaningful especially in todays days and age. Lyle Rexer puts it best on the next page stating photographs have become, “an avalanche piling up in immaterial Himalayas and melting away just as fast on Snapchat.” Photos have lost meaning due to the sheer daily intake of hundreds of thousands of images that lack real merit. People’s attention span’s are growing shorter and shorter as the media being presented is more widely available and can be rapidly consumed through platforms like Tik Tok and Instagram. 

The concept presented by Lee to give focus to nature sounds quite refreshing during this time. So I had the idea to create an image that incorporated digital design aspects that are vivid acting as a beacon to draw in viewers that may need a lot more visual stimuli. The designs would work to draw in the eye of the viewer to the beauty of the natural subject matter, in this case being an Iris found in my backyard. 

Before design element

                                              Final

I wanted the design to add to the aesthetic of the the flower so I chose organic shapes and a complementary color scheme. To me it makes me think of what a creature like a bee or a mockingbird may see when being drawn to the intense colors of certain flowers. I believe humans need more perspectives like that through imagery. You know instead of the overflow of imagery we get on the daily advertising things like the McRib is back.