“Plenty Movement, Little Crossing”

Perhaps it’s a factor of living in this day and age. Perhaps its a factor of living in a city that moves nonstop. Either way, one year into New York City, and I am fascinated by how despite the fact that everybody is on the runt, there are still so few crossed paths. This phenomena is often exhibited in the exact spaces that we call home. It is very possible to live 5 feet away from another person, yet go days without seeing one another. Whether it be opposite schedules, demanding jobs, or full social lives, there have been many instances where the only time I see my roommate during the week is at someone else’s apartment. Thus, I sought to capture the shifting spaces in an apartment throughout a week. Despite the constant ebb and flow of activity, each scene only ever captures one person’s life at a time. Throughout the day, there is plenty of movement, but little crossing.

Amanda amandaliew.com

-for improved quality, open image in a new window.

Critiques

Fernando: Amanda, I thought it was really interesting how you chose to represent your story in a gif. I also enjoyed how the changes in the room throughout the day, despite not being that great, also changed the feel of each picture. Doing laundry, studying at night, eating; everything has a very different energy associated with it, and I feel your picture captures that very well. Good work!

Jacquelyn: I loved your idea of creating a “moving picture.” Your GIF really brought your story to life, and even though there were no living subjects in your photos, I still came away from the collection with a heartfelt and thoughtful narrative. At first, I wasn’t sure what story you were trying to tell: was it a story of feeling the emptiness in your apartment? Or, was it a tale of the table, which has endless functionality? Once reading your artist’s statement, however, I immediately drew a connection to your message; sharing an apartment with two other individuals, I find it both perplexing and surprising to see how little our daily schedules intersect – even though we all work on the same floor of the same building!

My favorite aspect of your photos was the lighting, specifically how the shadows were being cast at different times of the day. To me, seeing the changes in shadows from dawn to dusk added so much depth and feeling throughout the entire GIF. I almost felt as though your dining room was on a theater stage, drawing the audience towards the way each object was placed to create the most dramatic account. As you stated in your artist’s statement, the only thing I would try to improve is the quality of the GIF; GIFs are notorious for being obscure and pixelated, so kudos to already doing a great job on making it as clear as you can.

Jessica: I am obsessed with the color scheme in all of these photos! So doll-like and beautiful. My only critique is that it was not clear to me that there were multiple people living in this space. Although maybe that was your point? … I do see now, going back and looking at your images carefully, that there are two frames with two different computers. That was cool! I feel like I could watch the GIF over and over again and find new details each time. Well done!

Stephen: Amanda: I really do like the GIF idea, scrolling through the images would have been a lot more effort and you cannot appreciate the subtle changes between images. You took care in moving the backdrop in slight successions to give a depth into the photo set which was great. My eyes were, unfortunately, drawn to the printer in the corner which was a bit of a distraction, analysing the full image from a test shot before hand would be a great way to set off in full swing without later regret. I was really gutted that the flatmates never crossed paths actually, it would have been heartwarming for them to share a meal at the end to catch up on their week’s apart. Your statement captured the sense you were conveying, and I know you and K to be of similar structure, bringing a very personnal aspect to your images. great deals of care were put in to these images!