Fire and smoke: Obscure Beauty - 42846315

Fire and Smoke

Theme: Fire

Sub Theme: Smoke

Fire and smoke: Obscure beauty

Mundane is not a word usually assigned to the ferocious element of fire, perhaps because of its beauty and forbidden enticement. Within her piece on digital image sharing and everyday aesthetics, Murray emphasizes a new era of amateur photography which surged during the 1950’s as a documentation of ‘The good life in post-war America, and a means to that end.’ The website Flicker is referred to by Murray as “a daily diary of impressions” with focus on realism, urbanization and the small objects in life that often go unnoticed.

My photo assignment is compiled of 24 iPhone photos from a source of over 48 and attempts to depict the way in which fire will never be considered part of the ‘everyday,’ being one of man’s greatest achievements - despite its constant use. The narrative style of my project loosely follows moments in time of a pre-adult boy’s life, creating some sense of journey - the ‘exploration of the urban eye,’ portraying the way in which fire is manipulated by man: candles; matches; lighters; burning within child experiments etc. Through images of burning plastic dolls, flowers and faces, I hoped to illustrate the allure of decay, alienation and kitsch objects. The re-occurrence of the slowly burning tree and the repetitive ‘lighting’ of different implements (lighter, matches) relate to societies’ infatuation with flames and burning, hence my title: Fire and smoke. The song, RetroFuture Nasty, was picked to create an urban, rebellious atmosphere in theme with the assignment requirements and my subject choice.

Through lighting, frame, colour and subject I’ve attempted to blur the lines between amateur and professional photography. From lighting candles to terrorist attacks, fire has been used throughout my assignment as a means to the end of discovering ‘aesthetics within the mundane,’ beauty within the everyday, seduction of the norm.

Created By
Jack Barkl (42846315)

References: 

Murray, S (2008) Digital Images, Photo-Sharing, and Our Shifting Notions of Everyday Aesthetics. Journal of Visual Culture, August 2008, vol. 7 (2). 147-163.

Music By:

RetroFuture Nasty - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/