Photo exhibition in Spring 09, need help

Hi all,

I am in a photography course with the goal to put together an exhibition by Spring 09. As the general theme we've chose "LIFE". We are free to make any picture we want as long as they (4 photos) belong together in one sub theme that we associate with LIFE.

So I've been doing a bit of association but I sure can use some help...

• I work in a hospital, so you could say that the "product" we sell is life. I'm thinking about (with attention for privacy matters of course):
  - health
  - operating rooms
  - "life and death"
  - chemo patients
  - recovery
  
• When I drove back from the course I saw a sign on the side of the road: Art is Life. No ideas yet what I could photograph within that theme.
  
• Really close to where I live there is a bar called "The Life" (well in dutch that is). I could make pictures there but I'm not really in for taking my camera into a "beer place". Any thoughts what I can photograph in a bar???
  
• On the Internet I found "The Tree of Life" but again... what could I do with that? I don't know much about the Tree of Life.
  
• I could photograph eggs, the source of life
  - a brown egg
  - a white egg
  - a yolk
  - a broken egg which is leaking or dented
  - a quail eggs (all sorts of eggs if I can buy them anywhere)
  - a soft boiled egg
  
• The Good Life... I think we can all think of stuff that comes with that, like candy, cake, etc. but any other thoughts??? What do you associate with "the good life"?
  
• Life savers, this one is medical again
  - pills
  - oxygen mask
  - life line on a machine
  - drip

So what other things do you associate with the general theme of life and what "pictures" do you see with that, or do you have additions to what I've already made? I really need a load of ideas so that if I get stuck with one theme I can go on to the next.

I hope some of you can help me.

Jolanda

I really like your hospital idea...photo essays of things the average person doesnt get to see very often like behind-the-scenes hospital stuff would be cool.

"Life" reminds me of plants. It always makes me happy to see plants growing in the middle of industrial settings where they dont "belong" - like through the cracks in a piece of concrete. Or how tree roots sometimes get so big, they cause sidewalks to crack to make room. Life is messy and doesnt always go according to plans, so the cracked concrete thing would be a good visual metaphore of that.

Eggs or seeds sound like great starting points too.

Good luck :)

You might play with time laps photography? Life in fast forward? You can set your camera to take a photo every hr for 2 weeks and you'll have about a 2 min. long video at 15 frame a sec.  (I think those numbers are right?)  the liked all your ideas. I'm just tossing out ideas.  I like the theme of life. Recently I was helping my DH with idea for logo and I got really attached to idea of  human element blended with natural elements.  I love hands of people in different jobs as thought just tossed out there. Old people hands, baby hands, dirty manual labors hands with just enough background behind the hands that can general see what they do.

Ok  I could ramble for hrs. lol Let me know what you decide.

(edited text)

I like the hands idea from amy.

Maybe something similar with babies....smiling baby, screaming baby, sleeping baby, another baby :)

I like the hands idea as well....

and just now (while reading azzira's entry) I was thinking about my middle school biology project where you had to put a bean on wet cotton wool (or something) and make drawings of the bean and the roots. Hmmm would a normal dried bean do that or would you need special beans that you buy in those packages in spring? Time for some experiments this week I guess ;-)

I'm very into macro (close up) photography and I'm thinking of buying myself a really good macro lense... that would give me great chance to practice with it.

Hmmm that sidewalk idea... very good one... or more general, the messy side of life. I live in a town so that is nooo problem here.... like city life: the red light district, mess in the canals, people in the street with maybe a trash can bursting out of it seams, and a ..... dunno yet.... (but then.. my city prides itself with being so "clean" haha)

More ideas anyone??? What do you associate with LIFE???

I needs lots of ideas so that if I can't produce good piccies for one subject I can move on to a new one... or maybe even produce two assignments :-)

Jolanda

Original Post by jcbolt:

I like the hands idea as well....

and just now (while reading azzira's entry) I was thinking about my middle school biology project where you had to put a bean on wet cotton wool (or something) and make drawings of the bean and the roots. Hmmm would a normal dried bean do that or would you need special beans that you buy in those packages in spring? Time for some experiments this week I guess ;-)

I'm very into macro (close up) photography and I'm thinking of buying myself a really good macro lense... that would give me great chance to practice with it.

Hmmm that sidewalk idea... very good one... or more general, the messy side of life. I live in a town so that is nooo problem here.... like city life: the red light district, mess in the canals, people in the street with maybe a trash can bursting out of it seams, and a ..... dunno yet.... (but then.. my city prides itself with being so "clean" haha)

More ideas anyone??? What do you associate with LIFE???

I needs lots of ideas so that if I can't produce good piccies for one subject I can move on to a new one... or maybe even produce two assignments :-)

Jolanda

 An ordinary bean will do.  Use a large one so you get nice big leaves and plant it in dirt to contrast the green with the dark brown (if you're doing color).  I think a photo of just the sprout - stem and the two first leaves - is evocative of life. 

i third the time-lapse idea.  i have one that i took outside kensington tube station in london the day after the san francisco quake ('89).  it's pretty cool, because the headline on the London Times in the newspaper box is crystal clear, as is the station entrance, and then the pedestrians are invisible, except for the ghosts of their shoes on the sidewalk.

but for me, "life" is probably best illustrated by candids of children.  just don't be the creepy person taking pictures at the playground, hey?

hmmm...time lapse shots at a playground has some cool implications.  a 10 second exposure of a kid on a slide or 30 seconds of kids on swings...or maybe a sledding hill?  white snow, bright snowsuits?  or a skate park?

Original Post by clairelaine:

An ordinary bean will do.  Use a large one so you get nice big leaves and plant it in dirt to contrast the green with the dark brown (if you're doing color).  I think a photo of just the sprout - stem and the two first leaves - is evocative of life. 

 I need 4 photo's to make the serie. Would you think making other beans as well or hmmm... maybe I can make it in four stages or something. Like dark ground (1st), the first green itsy bitsy thingy (2nd), first leave (3rd) and 2 leaves (4th)... Wow... cooool idea!

Pgeorgian: that station photo sounds great. I agree about the candids... but I don't have a lot of kids around me so I would have to go to a playground and that is a bit ugh... (I totally agree). I also don't like people taking pictures of me just like that without asking and if it would be my child  then I wouldn't like it either. Too bad that it is getting colder so kids are clothes pretty well so they don't "show" that well. I would have to wait for snow or something.

great ideas guys!!!! I have great input to start working on them....

Jolanda