Constructed // Film Photography
Constructed film photography meets surrealism meets situations that feed your annoyance.
First scene, shopping cart with a dress in it in the parking lot: People are usually frustrated when someone parks a trolley in the parking space, but then the surrealist aspect is the dress which leaves a mysterious story behind on perhaps an engagement that didn’t go as planned.
Second scene, motorcycle and blue cheese: Seeing any vehicle abandoned for months or years usually gets on people’s nerves. It could be the curiosity of who might just leave a vehicle abandoned that drives people crazy. But then there is the piece of blue cheese that emphasizes the time, months or years, which the motorcycle has been left out untouched.
Third scene, earphones in a tree: Tangled earphones are the worst, especially when you’re in the mood to listen to music in public. But then the relation of the tree which is the surrealist aspect is that whenever trying to reach into a tree to pick out a flower, your hands get tangled within the branches and leaves which makes the entire process annoying.
Fourth scene, book in the water with an egg whisk: It’s pretty day ruining when you’re enjoying a read in the pool until your book falls into the water. But it only gets worse when there is a whisk to help you pick it up, when it’s completely useless. That surrealist aspect also implies that the book can’t be used until dried up and might not even be clear then which causes it to no longer a readable book (useless). Perhaps it could be used to create art instead.
Fifth scene, Ice cream on a yoga mat: It really is sad when you’re enjoying your ice cream cone on a hot day until it ends up falling on your yoga mat. The irony/surrealist aspect is that the person was having ice cream while working out which is a dilemma that we all live in (junk food over being fit or vice versa.)
Sixth scene, toilet paper in the parking lot: This could be interpreted into two things. One, It definitely is the worst when you reach out for a piece of toilet paper when the entire roll rolls out. Everything ends up getting twisted and you’d need to gather the paper that fell out and throw it away. What a waste! The surrealist aspect will be shown in the scene where the toilet paper ends up wrapping a humans face in the parking lot. I chose the parking lot simply because before getting into the car or the metro for example, you notice something is stuck on you either by someone telling you or you tripping. Two, another aspect is that it is embarrassing to have toilet paper stuck on the bottom of your shoes when leaving the bathroom. Even worse is when it drags out all the way to your car or on any public transport.
Seventh scene, coffee and a coffee pot next to the parking lot entrance: From what I observe on a daily basis, I noticed how frustrated people get when swiping a card to enter a parking lot but it takes several tries for it to open which actually wastes a lot of time. So to emphasize on the time aspect, the surrealist aspect that is the coffee and coffee it implies that the entrance is taking it’s sweet time to open up. The entrance is in a way having coffee meaning it isn’t in a rush to open up for the cars.
Finally, why overthink and dramatize everything? Why make a mountain out of a molehill when there is a solution to our little problems such as the ones mentioned above. And even if there isn’t a solution, we could always create an alternative. In every scene, the surrealist aspects are left open for the viewer’s to interpret in however way they want to but it is definitely about focusing on taking things easy and not getting frustrated over the smallest situations because if we waste our rage on such things, what would we have left for the big issues or how much madder could we get? Take it easy, because although the tiny frustrations are the simplest forms of irritating, if you’re calm when they occur, you’ll be able to teach yourself how to handle seriously bad situations in a composed manner which could help you reach a solution.
