Portrait Photography

The 'Portrait' photography project was my second series of photographs composed in the course CMDP 2500: Introduction to Media Practices for the Media Productions major at CU Boulder.

The CMDP 2500 course itself is the introductory studio course for Media Production majors and minors. The coursework is split into 4 different modules focused for each concentration within the Media Production major. There is a documentary concentration as well as audio, extended media (AR/VR Tech), as well as integrative which takes from all concentrations. I am now in the integrative concentration, but at the time of taking this course, I had not yet declared my concentration.

The first module we started in was audio, where me made our own audio project. The second module is the photography module which is the work I am showcasing for this photography collection. The third module was for extended media, in which we created 360 photographs and video that were displayed in our campus planetarium for their final viewing. The final module was the for the documentary track, where we were grouped together to make any kind of documentary. My group made a mockumentary.

As for the photography module of CMDP 2500, we were tasked to create a story-based series of photographs, a scene-based series of photographs, and a portrait series of photographs.

Due to this being my first time using a DLSR camera to create a series of photographs, the story and portrait series are a little lackluster. However, the scene series was where I felt my photographic practices finally clicked. All shoots I have done after this series are noticeably stronger than before I had taken the 'Scene' photography series for CMDP 2500. I still believe that some of these shots are of the strongest photos I have taken.

For this 'Portrait' series of photographs for CMDP 2500, I chose to photograph my friend and roommate at the time, Ethan. We shot his portraits on the stairwell of our apartment as the early winter snow created a prominent contrast between the bricks and dark railing to the backdrop of white overcast snowy weather.

Even though this series is not as strong or extensive as the 'Scene' collection for this course, these photographic series were meant to be introductory to learn this kind of photography and different styles of photography. The 'Portrait' series was a improvement from the first 'Story' series and I was able to improve further upon the 'Portrait' collection in leading up to the final photographic series that was the 'Scene' collection.