Connecting Essay 4

In this first image that I found online, we can see a clear distorted reflection. The first thing that the viewers eyes are drawn too is the eaten apple core. We see this through the use of composition and lighting. There was a strong light presence on the apple core, and it is much brighter than the other parts of the frame. The lighting is shown through the lightest parts on the mahogany and on the light apple. In contrast to this, the audience is then drawn to the reflection in the mirror. As we can see from this image, there is a huge contrast between the eaten apple in the image, and the full apple in the mirror. I feel like this image was extremely creative and I have looked at other images like this, but that featured a range of different ideas. One of the reasons I like this image so much is through the juxtaposition between the two images, which perfectly display a distorted reflection. There is a big light source, which creates shadows and highlights the two main objects in the image. 

Internet Image

In my own image, I had the previous knowledge of distorted reflections which were natural. However, it was then time for me to create my own distorted reflections which were manmade. I did this by placing Megan in front of a mirror, I then got her too pull a variety of different poses. Some of them were very similar and therefore it was much harder for me to make it clear to the viewer that the pose she is pulling differs from real life to the reflection. In the final set of images, I had Megan applying makeup such as putting on mascara and pushing up her hair. However, the hardest challenge for me was ensuring that the mirror was never covered by Megan's body. The image below in which Megan is looking into the mirror, took a lot of thought and consideration as I needed to make it clear that there was a juxtaposition. I chose two poses, which were not at all the same. The first, you can clearly see her applying lipstick, with both of her hands down. Secondly, when in the mirror, she is pushing up her hair and not applying anything to her face. The lighting and composition in the room was also a big part of the image as we needed to make sure that she was positioned enough to see her both fully and see a clear juxtaposition.

Own Image

 The key connection in both of my image and the internet image is the difference in the real life state and the reflection. Although the composition of the images is different and the subject, they are both based on the same topic, which is to show how a reflection can be altered. Both of the images were done through editing software, which involves placing an altered reflection in the mirror while keeping the real image the same. I chose to do my image differently to the one involving the apple which placed the real image on the image. I think this worked better in mine due to the layout of the room that I was shooting in and the angles in which my model was posing. In the first image, there is also more directional light which encourages the viewer to look directly at the apple and highlights through the image in the reflection. To conclude, the main connection between the images is that the theme is the same which explores the idea that reflections can be manipulated and each person has there own idea as to what they see in the mirror.