Writing Assignment 3

In this photo I see a white older male in a flannel shirt with a beard. The photograph uses a slow shutter speed to create two instances of him in the photo. One instance appears to be making an aggressive movement towards the other. The other instance of him appears to be unconscious with his head on a chair. This creates a story, although we know there is only one man in this photo, it appears as though there are two characters. The picture makes it look as though one instance of him is stabbing the other. This raises the questions, why did he choose to do this? This leads me to believe that this is a metaphor as to how he feels. A flannel shirt along with an untrimmed beard and a shoddy small apartment does not represent happiness. This combined with the aggressive movement he appears to be making with himself gives answers to why he chose to do this. In my interpretation the reasons could be that he desires to kill himself, as this is what is portrayed in the photo. Another possibility is that the photograph is a metaphor, and the photographer feels as though he is sabotaging himself. This photo does not show me anger towards others but more with himself, regardless of what the photo represents it appears to be solely about himself.

some winter photos

some of the self portrait photos

BIO

I am Arman Ranjan Marwah. I am one of a family of 7 and my home is in Hong Kong. I have 4 sisters and two brothers. The passion i have found in education came from media studies, a class that i took in Hong Kong. This inspired me to make some music videos and advertisements for a youth music program in Hong Kong. However, I now live in New york and my life is occupied by school and a single hobby, shoes. I prefer to always have music on and the door shut as i find music can affect the way i feel and therefore it is easier to be elsewhere when my attention is occupied and i am alone. I enjoy foods hence i prefer to eat out as often as possible. I have two turtles, one of them died in the making of self portraits. I live alone with my mom and spend time skyping the rest of my family. Right now I see everyday as a day closer to returning to Hong Kong and I am somewhat ok living here knowing that i can return every holiday. I hope to go to college at USC in california as they have an excellent film school and a program in which i can take a combined major of film and business which is exactly what i want. I am Arman, i am 16 and i live in Soho, New York.

Writing Assignment 1

I believe that photos have many purposes. Photographs can be sued for whatever the specific photographer intends, literally anything. A photo can save someones life, illicit emotions from people or even kill. This is why every photo is unique, no matter how generic, they all have a purpose. Although photos all have their own meaning, this can also change with context. A photo of a plane crashing would typically be seen as horrific and sad if seen on the news, however if this same photo was on a CD cover it may be seen as artistic and possibly even beautiful. For example, the photo above, if seen in a nutrition magazine could be labeled as giant carrots being grown by genetic engineers to save humanity form famine. However, i found this photo in an art magazine and it is simply modern art and the carrots are far from real. This is why although all photos have a purpose, context affects how this purpose is interpretted and therefore is important.