Assignment 2

For this assignment, we are supposed to take a series of 4 photos about the keitai phenomenon.

Initially I wanted to take everyday objects, but I wasn't sure of what exactly. I then thought of our handphone(s) being inseparable from us: we bring it to our meals, to bed, and to the washroom. (Ok, this may be exaggerating, but I do think there are people like that.) Thus, I wanted to take photos of a handphone lying beside a bowl of rice, a pillow, a toothbrush, etc to depict the phone accompanying us as we get by our daily activities. I deliberately chose non-mediated activities to portray the handphone as invasive and pervasive. The phone even invades our daily activities that do not need media: it's not as if we need the phone to eat or sleep, unlike doing work, listening to music etc. But the fact that it is there shows the convenience of the handphone that makes it pervasive (unlike a laptop, for instance).

However, I then realized the keitai phenomenon refers to that of taking photos with the handphone, and not to the handphone itself. So I tweaked my concept a little, and changed my photos to show a handphone taking photos of a pillow, toothbrushes, cutlery and a wardrobe instead. The world outside the photo is post-edited to be black and white. This is to show contrast: everyday life is mundane, but through the lens of the handphone, we find interest and color in life that is worth capturing. This is part of the keitai phenomenon as people tend to take photos of everyday objects and share them with their family and friends through social media. Nevertheless, through my choice of everyday objects, I still hope to portray the handphone as being invasive and pervasive (as explained above) at the same time.

I kept the phone to the bottom left of all photos for consistency. The photos are arranged to the sequence of our morning routines: waking up, brushing our teeth, having breakfast, and changing for work/school. Here're my photos:

I placed a teddy bear beside the pillow to add color contrast. I don't actually sleep with it ;) This is also the only photo where I had to add saturation to the colored photo. The contrast between color and black and white isn't really great otherwise.

I had some problems taking this photo as I had to avoid capturing the camera and myself in the mirror. Thus the composition of the colored photo is not ideal. However, in the context of the whole photo, the composition becomes more acceptable.

This photo presented the least problems when I captured it. The lighting in my kitchen was kind of dark though, which explains the shadow in the colored photo. However, I thought this makes the photo more realistic, so I didn't correct it.

This was actually the first photo I took. I had some trouble as I had no surfaces to rest my arms while I was taking it. My tripod doesn't give me a good angle, and my arms were tired by the time I took the photo. There was also reflection of my room and myself on the phone's surface.

However, I then realized I can actually superimpose the color photos taken from my phone, so I don't have to worry about the reflection. I solved the difficulty of coordinating my hands to take both photos simultaneously by taking the photo on digital camera first, before capturing on the phone as I continue to hold my left hand in place. And so this is what I did for the previous photos ;)