Chia Aik Beng is a 46-year-old local photographer who was recently chosen to takeover @guardiantravelsnaps on Instagram. Chia, a street photographer, has had his work exhibited and published internationally.
His work has alternated between black and white and colour — which he often uses to convey mood. I will be using two of his pieces to explain the concepts I was inspired to include in my video.
The image above is of a long corridor in what seems to be a building in Singapore. The scene behind the man suggests that it is mid-day, but the dimly lit location coupled with the bright light from the end of the corridor seems to give the aura of oppression, as the man is now framed and shrouded by darkness. His expression is unclear as we only see his silhouette, though it seems that he is crossing his arms, giving us the symbolic signifier that he is either angry at the oppressive dark, or protecting himself from the oppressive dark.
The relative lack of colour in the photo — only green and red hues are in the background — further accentuate the oppressiveness of the darkness surrounding the man in the foreground. In addition, the fact that the lights on the ceiling in this image do not work to provide light on their own further signifies the severity of the oppressive darkness.
I chose this picture as an example of the effect of oppressive darkness in an image — and the contrast it can provide. My group’s created work will involve parallel edits between shots of a young child playing the piano and dancing ballet with shots of the young girl being tied up, with the latter representing the oppressive space the child is brought into when she meets her mother’s high expectations. The oppressive darkness of this image — coupled with the defensive stance of the figure in the foreground — provide an idea as to how to frame our shots to provide the oppressiveness we want to convey. The more oppressive the image, the more effective our persuasive technique, as we can give a visual representation on how expectations affect young minds.
The image above provides a good representation of the contrasts between a monochromic visual and a full colour shot — and the paradigm and metaphors it can produce.
The two portraits — one in monochrome and one in full colour — are of the same man, one who works as a Teochew opera artist. The shot of the former seems to be of one before the stage is set up — unpacked boxes and empty tables are in the shot. The monochromatic shot seems to give an air of mundanity to the subject. The full-colour shot, however, is of the man in his full costume and makeup, and is of one when the stage is set up and well-used, with ornaments and props ready for the show. The full-colour shot — one that seems to be deliberately over-saturated — lends the man character; he is literally in a Teochew opera character’s costume. Chia was inspired to meet opera singers who “put on these otherworldly personas by night, but are just like you and me in the day” — and the contrast clearly illustrates that, by juxtaposing mundanity and the extraordinary parallel to each other.
I chose this picture as an example of the effect of monochromic/polychromic parallel editing, in which polychromic shots of a young girl learning how to play the piano and dance ballet is interposed with monochromic shots of the same young girl in oppressive darkness (as above). Though the paradigm in my group’s created work is different from that of the curated image above, the contrast of the above image will help to inform our created work, as it will provide an idea as to how much contrast we can provide between the monochromatic and the polychromatic — and how we can oversaturate our footage for maximum effect. It also provides an idea as to how we can provide contrasts between reality (represented in the polychromatic shots) and fantasy (represented in the monochromatic shots).
