Leading lines

Artist Statement

For this project we were supposed to use the compositional technique, Leading Lines. Which means to take an image that follows a line to a particular portion or subject that is in the image. The subject of my image is my friend Mahia. I chose this subject because of my inquiry question which involves portrait photography. My setting was natural, I took this in downtown freeport by the parking garage where I found a brick wall. This image was taken with my photo and other than that I used natural the natural light given and a willing friend to be my model. I chose to make this image because I wanted to focus on a specific line that would lead into a portrait photo and a specific texture to add tension between the face of the subject and the line heading towards this certain subject. I also wanted to focus on using as much space without making the image plain or overrun with a wall or something that is leading this specific line.

For this image I used the leading lines technique as well as selective focus. You can see the leading line coming in from the left following the wall into the portrait. I also used the selective focus to focus in on the subject, Mahlia, and blur out the background to show what the overall subject of the image was. My project evolved from originally thinking of taking a photo of a bridge surrounded by lights in the dark, and have that as my photo but I wanted to focus on taking more portrait photos more and follow my inquiry question a little bit more than I already am so I thought a brick wall and a person to be my subject, and came to this final image.

The meaning behind this image is that it was a beautiful day when I took this image, and she was enjoying the day and was very happy, and I asked to take some pictures of her for a project and when she leaned against the wall, the wind blew her hair in the right place and made this photo. This project relates to my life because with her being happy, I was naturally happy as well because it was and extremely nice day for February, and I was enjoying taking photos outside. The only thing I would change about this image is that I wish she was wearing a dark colored sweatshirt so it would add some contrast between her clothes and the brick to grab your attention a little bit more when looking at this image.

-Matthew Kempf