Neighborhood Visited: East Williamsburg
Adjectives that describe it: Up-and-coming, industrial
East Williamsburg is mostly known for its industrial life but is also an up-and-coming neighborhood that is rich with a diversity of cultures that are represented with their people, food, music, and art.
a. How did you choose your keyword(s)?
To choose my keywords (up-and-coming, industrial), I thought about what I considered to describe the neighborhood accurately. East Williamsburg is the home of an assortment of factories and industries, but more recently it has been in the transition of becoming an area for the growing creative sector to express themselves.
b. What was interesting about the subject or the making of the initial collection of photos?
For me, it is always exciting to go out and take photos. For this assignment, it was interesting to focus my attention on the storytelling behind those photographs rather than just on their aesthetic. I found the people of the neighborhood to be very open to me while I took the photos, some even posed for my takes.
c. What impacted your decision to edit, or to choose the final 5 images? Why did you choose them? What story are you telling? How are these images a representation of your keyword(s)?
When I edit photographs I edit first the balance between the blacks and the whites, then the highlights, and shadows, and finally the hue, saturation, and luminance. For this assignment, I also took into consideration the way I cropped the images, which I wanted it to make the pictures personal enough for the audience to find a story behind it.
I chose these five images because I thought they represented the mix of what I consider East Williamsburg to be: industrial and up-and-coming. On two of the photos, there are workers, which I believe to be a significant part of the culture of the area. In one there is a car repair worker, and on the other, there are three men on a scrap metal truck with a storage industry behind them on the street. I chose the image of the men on the truck first because it showed the vehicle, which is present all the time around East Williamsburg. I also included that image because it contained a factory as a background. I added a picture of two men that were walking on the street with a costume shop as their background. I thought this photo could represent in my selection the community of citizens of the area. The fourth photograph I chose is the one of a man riding a bike on the street with art in the walls. This image shows the up-and-coming artistic side of East Williamsburg. Finally, I choose a picture of some shoes hanging on the electricity cables of the streets. I thought that the image contributes to the feel of the neighborhood.
