Symbols of American culture, Need school project help!

[EcEu]

So my photographic imagery class has been going smoothly, but i can really use some ideas for the second project that was assigned to me.

We're going to be focusing on depth of field, selective focus, and symbols for this assignment, and that's where i need some help.

The project is calling me to find things that symbolize American culture, and to take photos of those things.

I really don't want to take the cliche' EZ mode route on this one by taking pictures of flags and white picket fences and such. ( we don't even get much of those in my area)

My first idea was to buy a triple whopper from burger king and some fries and position that on a table with a glass of coke and take some macro shots. But i really need more ideas than that.

My friend came over today and suggested i go and take some shots of some good ol american muscle cars, which isn't much of a problem, but it feels too predictable again.


does anyone have some ideas on things that could symbolize american culture? the ways of life, attitudes, values, styles?

 

[Snail Shell]

Baseball/football games.

Apple pie.

Pictures depicting the military.

A strip mall.



Snail Shell

 

[venray]

Farmers working in a field

Any kind of factory pics...

The common every day worker in his/her job environment...
The kind of folks many forget about..

Unemployment office lines.....

 

[xionking]

It's cool that you want to steer away from the cliche.

From a perspective of somebody who doesn't live in America, and who's really only exposed to the imagery depicted on Australian television, here's a couple of suggestions.

The waiting room of a standard public hospital, perhaps?

Folks partaking in shooting practice at a shooting range?

Or maybe even a child firing a gun for the first time? That would be a powerful image.

Also, sometimes I reckon it's the simple things that say so much. Like taking a photo of somebody saying their 2 cents in a public forum.

Or a Middle-Eastern person chatting and laughing with an American?

A suburban street with the American Flag raised on most of the house's front lawns.

Americans from different facets of life banding together to achieve something benefical for their community.

African Americans and White Folk playing a game of street bball at a local park.

A picture of a Walmart building next to perhaps a smaller business, representing the machine that swallows up hardworking small business.

Sounds like a really interesting project, EcuEcu. Good luck!

-Xionking

 

[Mister Scruff]

If you want to stay away from cliches I have a few ideas:

To Kill A Mockingbird, Catcher In The Rye, and Of Mice And Men; and how despite being seminal nuggets of human wisdom nobody really bothers to read them.

A Brazilian immigration officer fingerprinting American citizens as they land, in response to the US decision to fingerprint and ID tag all visitors in the wake of the World Trade Centre attacks.

People who either hyphenate their American cizitenship or omit it entirely when introducing themselves (Irish-Americans, "Italians" born and raised in Brooklyn, etc).

NorAid.

Little Boy, Fat Man, and the Doolitle Raids.

A black prison inmate, to showcase the "racial profiling" that many law enforcement agencies, and indeed common citizens, engage in.

Might making right, despite Lincoln having declared otherwise.

And last but not least, a big old circumcised cock.

 

[Perduabo]

Read the lyrics to Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire."

A veritable smorgasboard of american icons.

 

[MasterPaladin]

expand on it go to a museum take photos of early America old uniforms and such old weapons etc and them come up through our history it will be like a photo story

 

[Babyshambles]

dollar bills.

focus on "In God We Trust"

 

[The Fallen Angel]

Pictures of anything Military

Money

Overweight Kids

a mall

video game consoles

if you have a factory near where you live try and get some pictures of the hard working men and women there

 

[chicago]

The Obama "hope" poster.

McDonald's arches. lol

 

[Goodieluver]

McDonalds
Coke(the drink)
American flag
smoking WTC towers

for baseball

 

[BlackestLily]

Well, cliche wise will be hard to do because that's how people will know it's the symbol for the place it represents. Common symbol knowledge. But I guess I think of the fact that everyone comes from everywhere, one common bond of unity amongst the diversity we all carry.

Perhaps a Hello, My Name is "America" sticker pasted on mixed races of people.

 

[Oddjob0226]

Do you have to shoot the pix yourself? I was thinking maybe getting the images of all 3 movie Jokers together.

Get a friend to do a pin-up shoot with you, retro style.

Shoot a library.

I used to have a photo of a movie marquee showing: "The Pasion Of The Christ" and "Hellboy". Get some funny/iconic signs like that since advertising, and humor, & incongruity, go together and we like it.

In fact, shoot some sign's that feature the apostrophes' in the wrong place's.

Is there an old drive-in theater around near you? Closed or open, that would be great.

Go to a toy store and shoot the COLUMNS of endless Star Wars stuff. And Barbie.

An English/Spanish sign of some kind.

Is there a Star Trek or comic convention coming up in your area before the assignment is due?

Get DVDs of British shows and DVDs of American versions of that show and line them up for the depth-of-field part of the exercise. Or Japanese & American remake DVDs.

Shoot a "Made In China" sticker outside a Wal-Mart (a kind of forced perspective shot)

A montage of "No Smoking" signs.

An AIDS resource center.

If you can get into a hotel room, shoot a Gideon Bible sitting inside one of the drawers.

A BBQ restaurant!

 

[xionking]

Just take a panoramic shot of some of the cyclone affected areas in New Orleans - areas that have been rebuilt, and other areas that still seem socially/economically devastated.

That should say something symbollic about the USofA.

-Xionking

 

[Goodieluver]

Do you have to shoot the pix yourself? I was thinking maybe getting the images of all 3 movie Jokers together.

Get a friend to do a pin-up shoot with you, retro style.

Shoot a library.

I used to have a photo of a movie marquee showing: "The Pasion Of The Christ" and "Hellboy". Get some funny/iconic signs like that since advertising, and humor, & incongruity, go together and we like it.

In fact, shoot some sign's that feature the apostrophes' in the wrong place's.

Is there and old drive-in theater around near you? Closed or open, that would be great.

Go to a toy store and shoot the COLUMNS of endless Star Wars stuff. And Barbie.

An English/Spanish sign of some kind.

Is there a Star Trek or comic convention coming up in your area before the assignment is due?

Get DVDs of British shows and DVDs of American versions of that show and line them up for the depth-of-field part of the exercise. Or Japanese & American remake DVDs.

Shoot a "Made In China" sticker outside a Wal-Mart (a kind of forced perspective shot)

A montage of "No Smoking" signs.

An AIDS resource center.

If you can get into a hotel room, shoot a Gideon Bible sitting inside one of the drawers.

A BBQ restaurant!

A LOT of what you list here are not just indicative of American culture

 

[Oddjob0226]

A LOT of what you list here are not just indicative of American culture

So don't shoot those.

Although a good photog could make those images speak to that subject.

But stick with those "Farms, military, factory & storm damage" images which of course can ONLY be found in the USA and nowhere else on earth.

 

[Saeria]

Here's one that would work but it'd be a quasi dangerous idea...

Go to your nearest mid size town, one with a good busy main street. Position yourself in the center/turn lane, facing the business district at about 5:45 in the afternoon and get a shot of the traffic, the stores, people walking by (it'd be best if the sun was right behind you, you'd get nice dynamic shadows and a good highlight coloring). You then encompass the busy life scene, our love for eating gas and consuming fast food and buying lots of crap. By taking the shot in this manner, you have the street in the center directing the viewer's eye to a jungle of people and businesses.

Or, if you're looking for more of a symbolic shot, just take a mason jar of change and tip it sideways ontop of a burger wrapper, that works too.

 

[Oddjob0226]

So how did the project go? Can we see the images that ended up getting used in the assigment?

 

[SepicChick]

It's cool that you want to steer away from the cliche.

Or maybe even a child firing a gun for the first time? That would be a powerful image.

-Xionking

Eek, I know we're known for our gun violence and whatnot, but I don't think even we let kids have guns. At least I hope.

 

[Intoxiphilia]

fat people and guns

 

[EyeDraw78]

Here's one for ya...

 

[EcEu]

So how did the project go? Can we see the images that ended up getting used in the assigment?

i got full credit i really appreciate the support i got here

 

[4Pawz]

I know it's like super YMCA-ish, but what would be a great one is if you could manage to get some persons of different ethnicities over to Four Corners in AZ. It's a drive, but it would be awesome.

But all the above are great ideas. Factory workers, law enforcement, military personnel, teachers/students, schools, any kind of a national preserve or forrest. I think that's the thing though, the basic idea behind American Culture is that it is so diverse, that it almost has to be multiple things blended into one....