Mirhea's Peer Review

After reviewing Mirhea’s project in detail I can say that I really like the idea behind the project, existentialism is an interesting topic to explore in a photographic medium. The inspiration used is quite interesting, I especially like the reflection of the trees in the water, it gives me a sense of melancholy and makes me question my existence in its isolation in the frame and the blurriness reminds me of the fogginess that comes with thinking of the future.

 I think the explanation given of the different elements portrayed, give a meaning to the images that might not be intuitively associated with them immediately. The photographs do give me a sense of disconnection mostly and I think the other two feelings mentioned melancholy and numbness are tangible in the works but might be subjective and thus not everyone might agree.

The choice of black and white is in my opinion, a well thought of choice, it does help with the feeling of disconnection, I also think that it makes the viewer feel distant from the subject. One thing that I might change is the contrast of the image, I think that if there was more contrast the images would have a more dramatic effect. I think the brightness could be reduced a little in some of the images to make the scenes gloomier. However, I understand the idea behind the whites giving a sense of urgency, that rests uneasy on the eyes. This makes for a less appealing image which in this context is a desired effect and thus a job well done.

The use of the natural scenery as an escape from reality is similar to my approach in regard to my project about social anxiety. However, Mirhea goes on to say that the forest and the trees remind us of our short lives, for they seem immortal to us. This I think is a very clever use of the natural environment. It is a feeling that I have felt before and I feel that I can relate to her concept.

Composition wise I feel like the first photo in the presentation was the least interesting of the three. The second photo has a sort of balance that is interesting to look at, maybe I would have placed the tree trunk on  the right third of the image to make for a better composition, however I think that the tree in the middle creates a sort of symmetry that is broken by the subject being only on one side of the tree and thus creating an imbalance in the image which further enhances the uncanniness of the image. The last image in the set has an interesting use of the Dutch-angle which makes the image feel like everything is about to fall to one side, nothing is stable reflecting the thoughts in an existentialist mind. While the subject looks contemplatively away into the distance reflecting, longing for something.

Overall, I think the images convey the meaning that they where meant to represent. This in turn suggests that the photographer’s intentions were reflected in the work she produced and thus making them effective. There where some things that I would change like the brightness and the contrast to make the images more mysterious, but that might effect the intended meaning and therefore ruin the intended feeling that they should convey.