Celia Wilson
VISUAL LITERACY
Research Task 01 - Trees
The meanings and associations of trees and their representations in photography:
Form and Negative Space:
- Negative space can drastically change the mood and story of an image
- Can add a sense of loneliness and/or despair
- Can strengthen the positive emotions in a photograph (01)
Cultural:
- The tree is a common symbol that can be found in many different traditions around the ancient world
- Trees are symbols of physical and spiritual nourishment
- This image (02) shows how trees are used within cultures to symbolise spiritualism
Metaphor:
- Metaphors of growth and success are associated with trees
- This image (03) describes how the metaphor of growth is derived from photographs of trees
Environmental and Political:
- Trees have always been important to the environment - take in carbon dioxide from the air and breathe out oxygen
- This image (04) demonstrates how trees being photographed in a certain way can help promote environmental issues which are commonly associated with trees
Image 04
Image 03
Image 01
Image 02
Task: Take images of trees yourself and discuss ‘meaning’
For this practical task, I took some inspiration from art photographer, Michael McAreavy who captured the shadows from a collection of trees which he aptly named, Shadow Dance. I decided to take my own spin on this shadow idea and captured this image of a large line of trees and using the natural lighting of the sun from behind managed to create the line of shadows.
My main idea before shooting was to encompass a sense of uniformity and anonymity within the photograph as all the trees stand as one and appear identical to one another, therefore portraying that as humans, we tend to hide behind anonymity and feel a sense of security when conforming to societal norms.