Dinner and a Movie

 

Sierra Van Natter

Movie Inspiration: Requiem of a Dream

 (2000)

Euphoria and Mayhem 

Medium: Photography, 2021

Artist Statement

    

        While viewing this movie for inspiration I picked up a variety of symbols for each character. Which I then implemented into the composition of the photograph in order to represent each of them. The four main characters are represented through the lipstick the, the pills, the orange, the money and the spoon filled with syrup on foil , which is supposed to portray heroine. The movie also has many artistic implements with filming in how they portray people on drugs and how they are affected by them. One way was through the use of lighting, which they did through the lights changing in certain scene frames in order to show or convey mood and effects of drugs. 

These aspects of of the movie influence my photograph design concept in the many aspects. For the lighting I wanted to capture and reference some of the bold colors they would typically use in these senses. One of these main colors was green, which can represent envy, greed and also can emanate disturbance or uneasiness. To accomplish this I used a green sprite bottle in front of my camera flash. Foe the composition I wanted to show order among chaos. Each symbol represents a character. How they are placed also shows certain trait of personalities from each character. As well as the main theme of drugs, sex and money. Some of the objects are placed to where they look like they are in order, but then placed next to something else that's turned or messed up to incline that even when people or objects are put together and neat they can still be surrounded by chaos. 

The overall meaning that I wanted the final photograph to reignite was that even through euphoria that is obtained from drug use there will always be the underlining factor of mayhem. That is not always perceived by the person who is doing the drugs.