critique: power project

While taking intermediate photography, our professor gave us three one-word assignments. Public. Private. Power. The assignments were open to our interpretation of what the words meant, which was great. However, it also allowed us to keep a focus when searching for subject matter.

I turned in the following images for my "power" project.


 

I took these photos in various places around the rural area where I was raised. I wanted to show powerful machines and tools wasting away. The fact that the agricultural industry has been on the decline throughout the past few decades is no secret. Whoever left these things behind seem indifferent to their potential power and use; at some point they determined that they no longer had a need for them.

The biggest flaw that bothers me about this series is the extreme difference in lighting, the obvious reason being a difference in weather on the different days that I shot. Some of the subjects fall within direct sunlight while others are in diffused. So far I generally prefer defused lighting because there's less room for variation. If I had really known what I was doing I would have captured the mood of my theme accurately, the series would be much stronger if all the lighting had been defused.

Our professor said that all photographers go through a fascination with "beautiful decay," but I find myself particularly drawn to such subject matter while photographing. But who knows. Maybe I'm just still in that phase.

I welcome any questions, comments or criticism.

d.Ro