Image

This image displays the gracefulness and beauty behind a fierce, highflying dunk. Every night during a showcase basketball game the crowd is roaring ready for tip off, and both teams are fearless as they look into each other’s eyes. As the game goes along there is only one thing that gets the crowd to stand up out of their seats and makes them yell and scream at the top of their lungs; a slam-dunk. There is nothing better than a player flying through the air only to slam the basketball home over the other team's player creating a poster image.

We do not, as Americans, hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. If we did, all men and women in America would have the same rights, but they do not. Women still earn less than men in the workforce and have not been elected president of our nation. Homophobic laws prevent some Americans from marrying the person they love or remaining with them and making decisions for them when they are critically ill. Racism continues to occur all over the United States on a daily basis with the Ku Klux Klan still very active throughout the country.

I created this image to express my feelings and make an argument about what I believe to be true. I feel that horseback riding is not just a hobby, it’s a sport. This is to many people something to laugh at and I accept the fact that not everyone shares the same opinions as I do. But, nevertheless my blog is about horses and horseback riding and in this image I hope to convey that riding a horse is just as hard, if not harder, than throwing a football.

I wanted to answer two important questions which are critical to my blog: "Who am I?" and "What do I want?" Throughout my process I realized there are a few things that are important to me that I'd want to share with a future partner. Namely, my love of baseball, New York City and theatre.

I started off using the traditional 'male' and 'female' symbols as seen on bathroom doors to show not only that I'm a biological female but that I'm pansexual and don't really care what gender my partner ends up being. I wanted these to be immediately recognizable and I think that they are.

I made this image to make a commentary on how the internet puts a lot of noise and distraction between what is really important in the world. I think it is important to realize that while internet memes are a source of culture today, it becomes a problem if we're all looking at the latest Hipster Ariel no one is paying attention to international crises. While I love Hipster Ariel ("I love the sea / It was too... mainstream") it is completely irrelevant to much of anything.

Every image can be perceived differently in many different ways. One’s personality, background, how easily influenced they are, or simply what they like/dislike can affect the way they perceive an image. Each component of this image has a different meaning which adds up to the concept of each individual sacrificing themselves and putting their entire heart into the something that is bigger than anyone on the outside could ever understand.

On their own, pictures can undoubtedly be meaningful. But the combined effect of certain images, if used properly, can have an infinitely more powerful effect. This particular image is iconic of Roland Barthes’s notion (portrayed in Rhetoric of the Image) of several individual parts comprising a whole. Although each picture here tells a story, the image as a whole is worth more than the sum of its parts.