Photographic Room 101- Colour Popping
My first qualm with colour popping is the overpowering aspect of colour in comparison to black and white, the colour often drowns the compositional elements of the photograph which instantly loses my interest, fig. 1 and 2 immediately lose my interest. Personally, the addition of the colour pop cheapens the image with a cartoonist display of colour and fragments the narrative of the image. With the distraction colour popping, makes me suspicious of the photographer’s intentions as I feel the photographer is trying to distract the viewer from underlying messages in which are connotated with the monochromatic image.
What is wrong with using either black and white or fully colour! There are other techniques the photographer can consider like editing the intensity of colour, experimenting with colour blocking to highlight the colour or even focusing on filters and gels. The mixture of both colour and black/white demonstrates an indecisiveness in the photographic narrative, perhaps as a distraction to the compositional elements which have been ineffectively used. When examining colour pop, I am always drawn back to examples in popular culture, of teenagers editing photos of their friends with heart boarders to post on their social media account for their friends to proceed to comment 30 heart emojis, fig 3, I in fact did this!
Finally, colour popping is not a technique I would personally use, I feel it is very clichéd and depreciates the photographic narrative. I understand that this is primarily used in commercial work, however there are, in my opinions, better ways to highlighting said product or client using traditional semiotic values. When looking at examples such as fig. 1 and 2 I am always left with questions: why are you drawing the attention to the coloured aspects? If the coloured section is your main focal point, why did you not consider compositional elements to highlight this?
As a reasonable photographer, I am very open to experimentation and alternative methodologies/ editing techniques, however for me the cheapened look of colour popping and my own embarrassment with colour popping alone is why it should be banished to ‘Room 101’!
Reflection of practice
My practice has been shaped throughout my time as a photographer, especially with the introduction to social media platforms. As I started my photographic practice, the educational institution fuelled my experimental methodology and encouraged me to make mistakes. This experimental and imperfect methodology allowed for me to make work based on what I liked, what I was interested with little consideration for my audience. However, in more recent year social media platforms have saturated the photography field with anyone with access to a camera considering themselves as a photographer thus to help build my initial profile I would find myself posting to appease audiences as opposed to producing the creativity and experimental work I much preferred. The choice to post aesthetically pleasing landscapes and portrait shots often helped me to gain followers although this did not hold any personality or creativity which my current work possesses. I had to break from social media after my social media page seemed to stagnate, I began to create work for my enjoyment with little consideration of what people would like to see, I late began reposting as a hobbyist as a opposed to social influencer. By changing my reason for posting I have found I am much more confident and truer to my photographic persona, I am not led or manipulated by the popularity of my posts as well my social media platforms are often used a space to network or find inspiration whether it be a photographic technique or subject to consider.
For my future practice I want to be able to publish my work within a professional setting i.e. exhibition events or even part-taking in photographic groups like the RPS allowing my work to be seen, debated and appreciated by those with interest in photography as I often find my conceptual work miss interpreted by those with no or little artistic interest. However, I am not endeavouring to have my work ‘accepted’ in an institution I want to carry on creating work for my sake, as a way of communicating my voice. I do although need to develop my confidence in the work I am now producing and not depreciate the value of the photographs, to give more credit and be less critical or self-sabotage my progression. Personally, I do not want to be considered as professional as having photography as my sole profession or adding pressure for my photography to be my money maker, as for me this will stop my progression. Instead, I would like to be referred as an artist thriving on the experimental practice with less pressure to make money as a profession. To achieve this I need to expose my work to a wider audience as well as continue to push the boundaries of my work, stay creative and produce on a regular basis even when I have artistic block.