Fallen Leaf

"Conflict all around
In an ambiguous world...
Fallen leaf I am."

In between the assignment presentations we viewed some excerpts of Dead Poets Society. We talked about the story structure and camera movements of the movie. So I started this entry with a "haiku". I have seen the movie before but decided to rent last Saturday to review it further. Anyways, before I get off the subject... here is the 2nd assignment. Enjoy.

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INTRODUCTION

On the 2nd of June, the Diploma for Photojournalism students of the Konrad Adenauer Center for Asian Journalism were out around Metro Manila with the goal of creating photos for 2 different assignments. This is assignment 2. Juxtaposition.

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THE DISCUSSION

The following day we went over everyone’s images. Everyone gave what juxtaposition they see in the image. Later on, I revealed how many juxtapositions were in the photograph. This is the transcript of the discussion.

Moderator: Who’s going to be the first one to comment on this?

Classmate 01: Black and white.

Classmate 02: Leaf and concrete. Nature and *cough* *cough*

Classmate 03: The same.

Classmate 04: I have two. Black and white and *cough* *cough* *cough*

Classmate 01: Big and small. It’s a big leaf and there are small leaves around.

Moderator: Who’s the creator?

Me: Me.

Course Instructor: Oh, Rad.

Me: Any more...

Classmate 05: The black seems to be clean and the white is dirty.

Classmate 06: Rad... yin and yang?

Classmate 07: Yin and yang!

Me: Actually, Classmate 05 is correct. The black part is cleaner than the white part.

Yeah. And the... vertical and horizontal line.

(laughter)

Course Instructor: Okey!

Me: That’s the obvious there. So, four...

Moderator: Ok. That’s it.

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REFLECTION

Every day we are surrounded by things that juxtapose. Some simple and easily recognizable as a boy under the shade of a huge tree. While others are complex as people going about their lives at Shibuya crossing. The minute juxtaposition are countless. Be it a pretty cosplayer dressed in myriads of colours meeting a not so good looking salaryman clad in black to an old couple having their daily walking exercise to a single lady talking to her mobile phone. It’s everywhere.   

My image is composed of at least 4 opposite conceptual ideas - horizontal/vertical, black/white, clean/dirty, living/non-living (others such as, curves and lines, sizes, rotten/fresh, red/green may also apply).  I have only intended to show at least 4 opposite concepts but more juxtaposition revealed themselves the more we looked and discussed the image. This is, to me, a delightful surprise. Everyone recognized the color juxtaposition first. And then they mentioned  the other elements. Only Mark was able to recognize the duo-juxtaposition that I intended in the image. And that was dirty-white/clean-black. As expected color was the first to appeal visually to the group. What was overlooked was the basic and that is, the concept of horizontal and vertical lines.  Had this been a black and white photograph, I wonder if the lines would have stood out as more visually appealing than the other elements.