Below are the four pictures I am using for my “Joie de Vivre” project. The unifying theme throughout is of two people interacting with each other in some way: a high five, jumping at each other, playing dodgeball, and spinning. The photos have strong and weak points, and I think most of the problems arise from the technical aspects of the photos, while they had good conceptual ideas. For example, the main weakness of the pictures is that they are all underexposed. This was due to the difficulty in finding models. Although I was careful to get the focus right, most of the time the action had broken up before I could take a second picture, and it was hard to get the proper exposure because the building was so dark. There was also slight motion blur on one of the pictures, which I did not notice until I had uploaded it.

The main strength the pictures have, on the other hand, is diversity. Each photo is comprised of different subjects in a different setting doing different things. I tried to vary the content as much as possible, while still sticking to the theme. In a way, this was brought on by the Lartigue project. Many of his photos are of people jumping or cars driving by, and I did not want my pictures to seem as if they were directly copying his ideas. I took my photos in the opposite direction, more along the lines of the joy of interaction than the sudden, self-contained joy Lartigue’s displayed. I attempted to show a variety of ways that joy can be expressed. The downside is that it was difficult to get a single, great picture, because there was not as much trial and error in each photograph. Instead, I tried to take a picture that conveyed each idea well, to find the best possible subject for the assignment. I was left with several photographs that had good themes behind them, but could have had better technical execution.