Phobias
Understanding visual world
Problem Statement:
Create an artwork that visually describes a phobia You will need to pick and research 2 phobias (everyone will have a different one) Ultimately, you will create a sketchbook entry and final photograph.
2023 phobias
Idea Brainstorming
Sketchbook Specs: Do in order
1. Create a 2 page spread. Address the background, 1 for each fear. (10 Points)
2. Include an "essential question" and answer for each entry. Start with why or how... minimum of 5 sentences each (10 Points) - 1 for each phobia
- How is someone who has _____ affected by their fear?
- Why would someone have the fear of _______?
- How does one overcome ________?
- Why does the fear of _____ exist?
3. Create a thumbnail for each concept below for both phobias. Label with photographer choices. - Failure to label photo choices will result in zero credit for this portion.
a. Through the eyes of someone who is affected: From their POV
Put yourself in the mind of someone who is affected. What will their world look like? (can include people)
b. An environment that showcases the phobia. What does their environment look like? Sarah Hobbs' photography showcases an exaggerated environment for personalities.(cannot include people, environment only)
c. Exaggerate the worst possible scenario: What does the worst fear look like? If they are afraid of spiders, maybe its 40 spiders crawling on them.
d. Create a photograph that would make the viewer who has the phobia fearful to look at it. See Claire's example of the dummy.
Do not shoot a human reaction only....
Exemplar Artists
Sarah Hobbs:
Sarah Hobbs constructs and then photographs uninhabited domestic spaces whose aberrations and excesses illustrate psychological pathologies. In her series of large-scale images taken with a 4 x 5 camera, entitled "small problems in living", benign and familiar settings become overwhelming and threatening, as they might be perceived by a person suffering from paranoia, obsessive compulsive disorder, agoraphobia, anxiety or the type of generalized postmodern neurosis embodied by Woody Allen's comic manifesto, "i can't express anger, I just grow a tumor instead".
Hobbs's work eloquently evokes the psycho-social pressures associated with big city living - she currently lives and works in Atlanta, GA. Her work is especially powerful because of its empathetic treatment of people suffering from irrational fears, whose legacy of alienation from those who are not afflicted is often as painful as the symptoms of the disorder. Though her images are not intended to be self referential, Hobbs writes, "being alone can be very comfortable, but there can also be great discomfort when you are alone with your own psyche. Little neuroses, phobias or the like can have room to grow. Further, at one time or another each of us has probably had the idea that we were the only person in the world with a certain foible, and possibly on a certain level felt that this made us weird or compelled us to keep it a secret. What a relief when we realize that, not only are we not the only one, but that the problem is quite common. Psychology connects us, just as sociology does."
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Phobia
Student Examples
Shooting
Requirements:
1. Shoot both of your phobias, 12 good images each
Contact Sheet
Requirements:
1. Create a new page on your website titled "phobia" (5 points)
2. Upload 2 separate galleries (1 for each phobia) (25 Points)
---- Be sure your images are not cropped (See video here for how to do this)
3. With each gallery, write a blurb about how your photos represent your ideas. Use the sketchbook thumbnails as a guide to how you shot your images. (20 points)
4. Publish your site.
Artist Statement
Requirements:
1. Explain what your (phobia / MD) is.
2. Give background info... how does it affect everyday life... how does it affect people that have it, others around it...
3. explain how your image describes this...