Lost in Translation

What is conceptual photography? It is photography of a concept i.e. idea, idea  that is illustrated and conveyed through a photograph.

It is more about the message of a photo than about what is in the photo. Some artists intend to be clear in their messages, in illustration of their ideas, and some do not care if they will be understood or misinterpreted. 

You have seen conceptual photography in advertising, in social critique, in political messages, but it is also used in contemporary conceptual art. 

You may take different approaches to this challenge: 

You may first come up with an idea that you want to illustrate, create a scene using some universally known objects that may act as symbols such as eggs, ping pong balls, chess figures, matchsticks and such. It does not have to be a complicated image composed of several shots to create a  surreal setting, and you don’t need to manipulate reality using Photoshop like some famous conceptual photographers. You can keep things fairly simple to achieve an effective result – transmitting a message.  

Alternatively, you may offer a photograph of a scene that you stumbled upon outside the house that you feel conveys a strong message.  And the third approach would be to simply photograph a piece of conceptual art  that you captured with your lens in which case you would act as an intermediary in the transmission of a concept. 

(My idea for this challenge was to give you a theme that you might do at home, and maybe for some of you the first push to venture into the field of photography that you haven’t done before).  

What inspired me to buy a bag of gummy bears and to arrange them by colour were  parliamentarian elections in the country – the tight race between two main parties – the left wing and the right wing, each of them pulling in opposite direction and watching only their own interests.

Segregation

Here are some links where you can read more about conceptual photography.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conceptual_photography

http://www.brighthub.com/multimedia/photography/articles/39542.aspx

This time you have two whole weeks to respond to this challenge. The last date on which you may post for this theme is 21 December. 

I will take 4 days off Internet between 14th and 18th December. You can read my updates on the Scheduled challenges page. 

CHECK OUT THE ENTRIES TO THIS CHALLENGE:

https://cardinalguzman.wordpress.com/2016/12/08/conceptual-photography

https://ledrakenoir.wordpress.com/2016/12/08/finger-touch-get-the-feeling

https://teepee12.com/2016/12/09/almost-like-zen-thursday-special

https://empireoflights.com/2016/12/10/sweep-it-under-the-carpet

https://lucidgypsy.com/2016/12/11/conceptual-photography

https://beyondthebrushphotography.wordpress.com/2016/12/11/now-and-then

https://priorhouse.wordpress.com/2016/12/13/concept-art-coffee-cup-sizes-get-larger-every-year

https://tishfarrell.com/2016/12/15/sometimes-in-life-its-hard-to-know-which-way-is-up

https://smallbluegreenwords.wordpress.com/2016/12/20/thursday-special-11

https://3rsofretirement.com/2016/12/21/thursdays-special-conceptual-photography