# School project help please



## sssscar1 (May 16, 2011)

I received an assignment Friday and still have no ideas and am wondering if anyone has any suggestions.................These are the photos that I need to come up with............
1. make a photo that ask a question that hasnt been asked before
2. make a photo 20 years into the future
3. make a photo which makes the ugly beautiful
4. make a photo of the world the way you want it to be
5. make a photo of something never seen before
6. make a photo that reflects a fear
7. make a photo that makes the familiar unfamiliar
8. make a photo that takes you to a place you have never been before


If anyone has any suggestions on any of the above I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you in advance


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## Stradawhovious (May 17, 2011)

It seems to me that the assignment is designed to make you think and be creative.  Anyone here that is giving you ideas how to go about this would be doing you a disservice.

My advice would be to think outside the box.  Take a look at the TPF Fight Club adn see how others have filled specific assigned topics creatively.

I doubt anyone here is going to do your homework for you.

Good luck!  Let us know what you come up with!


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## Village Idiot (May 17, 2011)

I've said the exact same thing many times over to students who come on here asking for help with their assignments. I do have some really good ideas for his assignments though. I really wish I would have went to school for photography and not for CIS: Networking.


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## behanana (May 17, 2011)

VI, I'm glad you came up with some good ideas, because my mind hit the gutter when I saw "5. make a photo of something never seen before", and there is no good ideas coming from it anymore!  Mind is gone for the rest of the day!


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## Village Idiot (May 17, 2011)

behanana said:


> VI, I'm glad you came up with some good ideas, because my mind hit the gutter when I saw "5. make a photo of something never seen before", and there is no good ideas coming from it anymore!  Mind is gone for the rest of the day!



Just because an object has been seen before doesn't mean that it's never been seen in a different light or how about a scene with people doing something outrageous that's never been seen before, or how about....nah...no more ideas for you.

Part of being a good photographer is being creative. If you're not going to come up with new and inventive ways to see things or to do things, then you're going to have trouble selling your product if you're planning on doing the type of photography that's not sitting in Sears or Olan Mills portrait studio. Being creative also allows you to overcome challenges. If you show up for a shoot and you end up with only a camera and a lens instead of lighting equipment and props that were supposed to be there, are you going to tell your client that you can't do the shoot and they have to try again on another time? That can hurt your credibility, but if you're creative, you just may come up with a way to save it.

I think this assignment is testing your creative ability.


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## Bitter Jeweler (May 17, 2011)

Word.


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## behanana (May 17, 2011)

For me this assignment isn't testing anything...it's not my assignment. You are correct though, it is a good assignment to test creativeness. For whatever reason though (probably the fact that I'm at work and don't want to be here) when I saw that particuliar one, my mind went straight to the gutter...and that's where it stays for now!


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## Village Idiot (May 17, 2011)

behanana said:


> For me this assignment isn't testing anything...it's not my assignment. You are correct though, it is a good assignment to test creativeness. For whatever reason though (probably the fact that I'm at work and don't want to be here) when I saw that particuliar one, my mind went straight to the gutter...and that's where it stays for now!



Oops. Thought you were OP.


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## bazooka (May 17, 2011)

And don't be afraid to fail.  Because there are so many shots requested and they are admittedly difficult (read "thought provoking"), if you get any ideas, jot them down and go with them.  It may not turn into a great shot, but you will learn from it because you're trying something different.


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## behanana (May 17, 2011)

It's cool VI, I'm actually thinking about trying to come up with shots for the assignment as a personal thing, they are very interesting challenges that do require some thought (albeit not thought in the gutter) and I could use some help with thinking outside of the box.


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## Bitter Jeweler (May 17, 2011)

That's another side of creativity. Answering these "questions" is one thing. Coming up with the questions for yourself is often harder,


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## Village Idiot (May 17, 2011)

Bitter Jeweler said:


> That's another side of creativity. Answering these "questions" is one thing. Coming up with the questions for yourself is often harder,



Dammit. That's why I'm trying to get into editorial and advertising work. I have some great ideas and I could make more money if I could find some good places to get my foot in the door, it's just hard as hell to get work if you're not an established name.


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## behanana (May 17, 2011)

Bitter I got to take it one step at a time...my mind is very mechanical most of the time, being able to answer these questions would be a milestone in my mind! You're correct though coming up with the questions is incredibly difficult. It's like asking a question about a problem/idea you don't know exists, if you don't know it exists how do you know to ask the question?


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## Derrel (May 17, 2011)

Seriously---you need to THINK a bit. I'll give you a little bit of help though: some of these assignments are going to be "abstract" or "symbolic" or "thematic"...not literal. Perhaps the reason you've had trouble is that you've been thinking about purely representational photography, and by that I mean where you take your camera around to various "things", and aim, focus, and fire, and come back with a picture of some "thing"...a purely representational image, a recording, a snap, a pic, if you will. What this assignment has is a number of photographic challenges designed to teach you how to broaden your abilities and your horizons. Let's take challenge 5, make a photo of something never seen before. Well, that sounds damned near impossible, right? I mean everything has been seen before, right? Well, maybe NOT. I am going to give you an idea of something that I have never,ever seen photographed before: a crucifix made out of a dill pickle and a hot dog, carefully cut and inter-linked. That took me about 10 seconds to come up with. What did I do? I went into the kitchen last night and noticed I had pickles and some big Polish sausage dogs from Bar-S...plus I keep seeing those commercials for Sonic's giant, loaded $1.99 hot dogs...

My advice grasehopper? head to the fridge!!!


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## reedshots (May 17, 2011)

Creativity is what this is all about, if you don't have it you will be stuck - I am not trying to do your work for you but here are a few things to get your brain working in the right direction.

1. make a photo that ask a question that hasnt been asked before - shoot something in nature that looks like a question mark. 
2. make a photo 20 years into the future - HDR
3. make a photo which makes the ugly beautiful - ?
4. make a photo of the world the way you want it to be - anything you want
5. make a photo of something never seen before - macro
6. make a photo that reflects a fear - spider, snake, dark room
7. make a photo that makes the familiar unfamiliar - macro
8. make a photo that takes you to a place you have never been before - anywhere you haven't been


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## ShaneKPhotography (May 17, 2011)

I agree with the others who said you need to do your own thinking on this but I think I'm going to attempt this assignment myself! Thanks.


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## Village Idiot (May 18, 2011)

reedshots said:


> Creativity is what this is all about, if you don't have it you will be stuck - I am not trying to do your work for you but here are a few things to get your brain working in the right direction.
> 
> 1. make a photo that ask a question that hasnt been asked before - shoot something in nature that looks like a question mark.
> 2. make a photo 20 years into the future - HDR
> ...



Sweet, way to do someone's homework for them.


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## unpopular (May 18, 2011)

1. Consider looking into postmodern art, which concludes that all questions have been asked already - and there isn't anything original in the world. Taking a cue from the postmodern philosopher Richard Rorty, the only way to create something new is to misinterpret that which has already been answered.

2. What kind of future do you think is inevitable? Maybe you see some doomsday environmental disaster scenario or perhaps a utopian future free of war, misery and greed. If you don't think much will change 20 years down the road then maybe images of the most mundane variety - or conceptualize with repeating images.

3. This shouldn't be difficult at all, the conceptual problem is that once you have succeeded the subject is no longer ugly. I think a more interesting approach is to look more at the relative nature of aesthetics than trying to do exactly as the assignment requires. Consider photographing things like garbage dumps, gutters, aleys - but to excel at this assignment, you'll need to address the issue that the subject isn't ugly if it's made beautiful. Consider taking several angles, first aiming for beauty, then aiming for as ugly as possible, present the two together but make sure that they are both recognizably the same - try to create tension between the two photographs and force the audience to question their own sense of aesthetics.

4. Only you can answer this, but think about when you are most content. Do you like being alone or with others? Don't think about the "world" so much in terms of political ideologies but rather you're own personal world and what makes you happiest.

5. Again, consider a postmodern approach to this - or make a photograph depicting your darkest, most personal secret.

6. Focus on the emotion of fear, and that which evokes it - concepts such as abandonment, loneliness, conformity, death

7. Again, there is a conceptual problem. Once you succeed, it is no longer familiar. This problem exists because a successful photograph is an object of it's own, and not just a cheap facsimile of the subject. In other words, a photograph of a familiar subject made unfamiliar will always be unfamiliar - this especially true in this sense because the image bears no resemblance of the subject.  Consider the process of becoming unfamiliar, rather than just obstructing the viewer from the consensual way of seeing the subject. Your teacher is going to be getting lots of macros and blurry pictures of otherwise recognizable subjects. Consider documenting decomposing flowers or fruit, objects set afire until rendered to ash, water damage, etc.

8. Consider documenting something outside your comfort level, maybe a family from another culture or a community that differs considerably from your own, try to really capture daily life in this "alien" world.

ETA: Don't worry about "not doing the assignment right" - doing the assignment "right" will result in stale, old, unimpressive results. I'm not saying to go off in the willy-wads and just do whatever you want, but I think it's important to push the criteria a little beyond what is immediately obvious.


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## untouchednalive (Sep 23, 2011)

This is a very interesting assignment, once i am done with mine I wil try this one for sure!


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## JWellman (Sep 24, 2011)

Old post but I'm glad I saw it today. It's raining and I need photo ideas. Hopefully the OP's homework list will help me a little.  Too bad he/she didn't come back to share what they did.


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## lieforalie (Sep 27, 2011)

JWellman said:


> Old post but I'm glad I saw it today. It's raining and I need photo ideas. Hopefully the OP's homework list will help me a little.  Too bad he/she didn't come back to share what they did.



Yeah, I noticed that this got bumped recently after a few months, but it looks like a fun project. I might give it a try for my own benefit.


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## JWellman (Sep 27, 2011)

I've done four of the eight so far. Interesting subject matter indeed!


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## lieforalie (Sep 29, 2011)

JWellman said:


> I've done four of the eight so far. Interesting subject matter indeed!



I thought that some of your recent photos on your 365 project sounded familiar.


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## mommyphotog (Sep 29, 2011)

Just because an object has been seen before doesn't mean that it's never been seen in a different light or how about a scene with people doing something outrageous that's never been seen before, 

Nicely said. I think I might do this assignment on my own though. Get my creative juices flowing.


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## JWellman (Sep 29, 2011)

lieforalie said:


> JWellman said:
> 
> 
> > I've done four of the eight so far. Interesting subject matter indeed!
> ...


I'm stuck at the moment! I have a few ideas but time and resources are coming into play. Hopefully I'll be able to finish the list next week.


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## gizmo69 (Oct 3, 2011)

I think it is better for you taking the time to think about original ideas. I had a challenge here in France about the theme "chambre enfants". You may browse different photos blogs, go into different places, which can be a good way to get some ideas.

hoping it will help you

Yvan,


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## Boogeyman (Oct 25, 2011)

Village Idiot said:


> reedshots said:
> 
> 
> > Creativity is what this is all about, if you don't have it you will be stuck - I am not trying to do your work for you but here are a few things to get your brain working in the right direction.
> ...


yeah but in my opinion if the op goes off that, they will end up turning in some bland pictures. :er:


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## tevo (Oct 25, 2011)

Im jealous of all these cool assignments. The only photo class at my school is beginning photography, and we get stuff like "herpaderp show a line"

...


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