Art Essay-Life is an Endless Journey, Photography
For the photography project, I did a work called<Life is an endless journey>.
At first when I was looking for a picture to work on, I found lots of pictures: a picture in Mongolia, a picture of an ocean in Taiwan, a picture of a statue and so on. Then I started thinking about which one of them I can use to develop a story and a meaning easily. So I chose this one, a picture of a highway, simple and clear.
I took the picture when I was travelling in Japan in February 2012. I was on my way to see a famous volcano called Aso Volcano. Aso Volcano is the largest active volcano in Japan, and is among the largest in the world. The night before I took the picture was snowing heavily. So we can still see some snow on the ground in the picture. I took the picture because the trip was very long, so we stopped on the half way to get some fresh air, and I found the view was very beautiful so I just took the picture.
In the picture, there were a few things. A very big part of my picture is the highway, a very long road. Along the road, there are bushes, some trees and lots of branches; I think they are symbols of winter. Since it is in the middle of nowhere, there were no cars. There was only one, which was our car, on the road at that moment. Behind, we can see mountains with smoke on the top, which is the outline of the Aso Mountain. We even can see there was accumulation of snow on the top of the mountains.
When I was developing my story based on the picture, I found that by looking at the picture, I could feel a sense of loneliness and emptiness. However, the feeling wasn’t strong enough, so I decided to put it in the Photoshop to make some changes to it.
I first developed the idea that life is a journey, that’s how I started to put my installation. I put two suitcases on the road because suitcases represent trip and journey. I found two images of suitcases, one is more modern and one is more retro. However, I chose the retro one because it fits better with the feeling of loneliness. Then after I thought I about the meaning thoroughly, I developed a second idea: life is tough. I continued working on the installations in my work. I used Photoshop to make potholes in the road. It represents the road is hard to travel. Last but not least, I used some effect to make the photography brighter in the middle, darker on the side, so that I can emphasize on my endless highway and the volcano. As you can see in my artwork, another big part of my work is the background, which are the volcano and the sky. I didn’t really make changes to that part, because I think the color of the background can express the loneliness and it creates a strong contrast to the dominant part, which is the highway. I made the whole tone of the photography to be a little bit dark, so it can better express the emptiness, loneliness and the endless of my artwork. And also I think the vintage color can enhance the feeling of loneliness and emptiness.
When I was making changes to my photography, I found it very difficult to make effect to the road. It took me a long time to achieve that by using Photoshop. But then I thought that the effect wasn’t enough, because if I didn’t tell people that I did that, people wouldn’t even notice about that. So I asked my friend for help in order to the effect stronger. So now people can the effect of the road easier.
To conclude my basic idea of the artwork: suitcase represents trip and journey; road represents endless and tough and my photography show a feeling of loneliness.
When I was travel there, it took me like 5hours to get to my destination, which was the Aso volcano. And the process was a little bit painful, because of the cold weather. But after I finally got to the destination, I found out that the view was amazing and even spectacular. So even though the snow made us travel longer to get there, but at the end, the view was really worthy.
So what I want to express through my artwork is that: Life is an endless journey leads to the most amazing view. It’s like when you are travelling, although the way maybe very tough and hard. And maybe along the way you may end up in the middle of nowhere, you should never give up; you should keep travelling. Because at the end, I guarantee the view is worthy. Life is the same. Everyone will meet different kinds of things in their whole life: difficulties, challenges, failures and even successes. Life is a long way, along the way you may be very lonely, and you will even feel a sense of emptiness, you can’t give up. Maybe you will feel a little bit stress, and maybe when you are facing your difficulties; there isn’t anyone by your side, you must face it on your own because this is life. Life isn’t easy. Sometimes, life is full of loneliness and emptiness, but if you go through all of them, you will achieve your success in the end. Let’s have a more easier example: we are now high school students, we have hard tests to do every day, and we meet different kinds of challenges. We may survive one semester but still, we have a long way to go in the future. During the process, it may be very tough; cause learning is a thing that can only depends on you. But after you put all you effort in, I am sure you will have a bright future. So life is a lonely and painful way but leads to your own success.
After I finish my artwork, I think maybe next time I would make the vintage feeling become stronger, but unfortunately my skills on Photography doesn’t allow me to do that, I think I will learn more in the future. Overall, My photography and installation want to say:
Life is an endless journey that leads to the most amazing view.
At first when I was looking for a picture to work on, I found lots of pictures: a picture in Mongolia, a picture of an ocean in Taiwan, a picture of a statue and so on. Then I started thinking about which one of them I can use to develop a story and a meaning easily. So I chose this one, a picture of a highway, simple and clear.
I took the picture when I was travelling in Japan in February 2012. I was on my way to see a famous volcano called Aso Volcano. Aso Volcano is the largest active volcano in Japan, and is among the largest in the world. The night before I took the picture was snowing heavily. So we can still see some snow on the ground in the picture. I took the picture because the trip was very long, so we stopped on the half way to get some fresh air, and I found the view was very beautiful so I just took the picture.
In the picture, there were a few things. A very big part of my picture is the highway, a very long road. Along the road, there are bushes, some trees and lots of branches; I think they are symbols of winter. Since it is in the middle of nowhere, there were no cars. There was only one, which was our car, on the road at that moment. Behind, we can see mountains with smoke on the top, which is the outline of the Aso Mountain. We even can see there was accumulation of snow on the top of the mountains.
When I was developing my story based on the picture, I found that by looking at the picture, I could feel a sense of loneliness and emptiness. However, the feeling wasn’t strong enough, so I decided to put it in the Photoshop to make some changes to it.
I first developed the idea that life is a journey, that’s how I started to put my installation. I put two suitcases on the road because suitcases represent trip and journey. I found two images of suitcases, one is more modern and one is more retro. However, I chose the retro one because it fits better with the feeling of loneliness. Then after I thought I about the meaning thoroughly, I developed a second idea: life is tough. I continued working on the installations in my work. I used Photoshop to make potholes in the road. It represents the road is hard to travel. Last but not least, I used some effect to make the photography brighter in the middle, darker on the side, so that I can emphasize on my endless highway and the volcano. As you can see in my artwork, another big part of my work is the background, which are the volcano and the sky. I didn’t really make changes to that part, because I think the color of the background can express the loneliness and it creates a strong contrast to the dominant part, which is the highway. I made the whole tone of the photography to be a little bit dark, so it can better express the emptiness, loneliness and the endless of my artwork. And also I think the vintage color can enhance the feeling of loneliness and emptiness.
When I was making changes to my photography, I found it very difficult to make effect to the road. It took me a long time to achieve that by using Photoshop. But then I thought that the effect wasn’t enough, because if I didn’t tell people that I did that, people wouldn’t even notice about that. So I asked my friend for help in order to the effect stronger. So now people can the effect of the road easier.
To conclude my basic idea of the artwork: suitcase represents trip and journey; road represents endless and tough and my photography show a feeling of loneliness.
When I was travel there, it took me like 5hours to get to my destination, which was the Aso volcano. And the process was a little bit painful, because of the cold weather. But after I finally got to the destination, I found out that the view was amazing and even spectacular. So even though the snow made us travel longer to get there, but at the end, the view was really worthy.
So what I want to express through my artwork is that: Life is an endless journey leads to the most amazing view. It’s like when you are travelling, although the way maybe very tough and hard. And maybe along the way you may end up in the middle of nowhere, you should never give up; you should keep travelling. Because at the end, I guarantee the view is worthy. Life is the same. Everyone will meet different kinds of things in their whole life: difficulties, challenges, failures and even successes. Life is a long way, along the way you may be very lonely, and you will even feel a sense of emptiness, you can’t give up. Maybe you will feel a little bit stress, and maybe when you are facing your difficulties; there isn’t anyone by your side, you must face it on your own because this is life. Life isn’t easy. Sometimes, life is full of loneliness and emptiness, but if you go through all of them, you will achieve your success in the end. Let’s have a more easier example: we are now high school students, we have hard tests to do every day, and we meet different kinds of challenges. We may survive one semester but still, we have a long way to go in the future. During the process, it may be very tough; cause learning is a thing that can only depends on you. But after you put all you effort in, I am sure you will have a bright future. So life is a lonely and painful way but leads to your own success.
After I finish my artwork, I think maybe next time I would make the vintage feeling become stronger, but unfortunately my skills on Photography doesn’t allow me to do that, I think I will learn more in the future. Overall, My photography and installation want to say:
Life is an endless journey that leads to the most amazing view.