Feet

Artist Statement

For this project we had to focus on feet. Whether that is your own or someone else's feet. My subject was Mahlia and her prosthetic feet. My setting was in the new wing back hallway looking out the window to have the sun shine in and reflect perfectly off the camera. MY image was made by Mahlia sitting on the beam above the window and have her feet dangle in front if the window so it could create a weird yet good shadow effect in front of her feet. I took this on my phone and just used her feet to take this photo. I chose to create this image because when we normally think about feelt we think of normal feet that are attached to our body, but Mahlia experiences something totally different. Her feet/legs are taken off like shoes and to show that brings in a new perspective of that some people are different.

I used the angle up technique as well as selective focus to focus on the feet and angle up to be able to get the sun in the photo and provides a good shadow. I chose the selective focus because I like the way it focuses on her feet instead of having everything crisp and clear to not really understand what I am trying to focus on and the selective focus really helps with that. I also used the angle up technique to provide the sun with the perfect lighting on her feet and give them the right look in front of the sun. I was originally toying with the idea to take a picture of my dogs paws but thought that taking a picture of Mahlia's prosthetics would have more meaning and look a lot better. Nothing really changed besides the idea of having it be taken in the lightroom but decided that natural light would look a little better.

The meaning behind this image is that we should be grateful that we have normal feet when some people have an everyday routine that they have to take their feet on and off. This relates to my life because I often overlook how lucky and fortunate I am to have nothing wrong with me in the sense of my feet and that this image makes me think how some people aren't as fortunate as I am or someone else. I think If I were to revise this image I would make sure the brightness was higher to show more detail about her feet or maybe change the color of the actual sky and make it different.

-Matthew Kempf