This was a pretty rough project. I think it’s pretty important to avoid using stock images if at all possible, so I took out a Nikon D70 from the Art Resource Center and went to work. Disclaimer: I am not a photographer.
This was my first idea. Based on a stupid pun and pretty straightforward. Although I liked the perspective on the first one, the focus was too distracting, so I ended up using the second. There wasn’t a whole lot to this.
Mixed Change: Mountain Series
The Mount Rushmore idea. This was a total disaster. I had this idea to represent a Mount Rushmore scene with coins, a kneaded eraser, a green candy wrapper, and a book with a blue cover. Colossal failure. It was not used in the final submission.
Mixed Change: Short Series
This one is also fairly straightforward. I was particularly proud of my photography work in exaggerating the scale. Then it was brought to my attention that the coins were out of focus. A quick reshoot lead to version two.
Mixed Change: Arts Series
I really do love my refrigerator magnets. After sticking tack on the back of every single coin and putting them up under the letters, I realized it was a bit of a heavy handed approach. Not wanting to eliminate them completely, I used them as spacers between words. The composition worked well enough, but it was still missing something. It was, well, boring. So, out of frustration, this was created:
Mixed Change: Kids
This is probably my favorite piece from the entire project.
Mixed Change: Dimes Series
Version one of the dime series is probably the worst thing I produced for this project. It also took longer to shoot than anything else due only to the fact that it took me a good twenty minutes to figure out how to use the self-timer on the camera I was borrowing. Yeah, holding down an obscure looking button with three concentric boxes and scrolling the f-stop wheel twice to the right in order to get to self-timer mode was really clear, Nikon. Anyhow. Version one was bland. Bland layout, bland photography, bland typography, bland copy, bland idea. It was, however, at this point, that I began to realize that my talents truly lie in being an asshole. So I blacked out my body and turned it into a propaganda piece against my candidate. I’m such a traitor.
Mixed Change: Mugshot
Continuing along with my anti-campaign, I scanned in a valueless token and created a mugshot. I was satisfied enough with it to not go back and revise it afterwards. This was probably a mistake, but it’s one of my favorites, so I’m not ready to go back and tear it apart quite yet.
C’est la vie.